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Two  Centuries  of  Costume 
in  America 


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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2013 


http://archive.org/details/twocentsofcostu01earl 


Madam  Padishal  and  Child. 


T 


WO   CENTURIES 
OF   COSTUME 
IN    AMERICA 

MDCXX  — MDCCCXX 


BY 


ALICE    MORSE    EARLE 

AUTHOR     OF     "  SUN-DIALS    AND    ROSES     OF    YESTERDAY 
"OLD    TIME    GARDENS,"     ETC. 


VOLUME    I 


New  York 
The    Macmillan    Company 
London:   Macmillan  &  Co.,  Ltd. 

Nineteen   Hundred  and   Three.  All  rights  reserved 


Copyright,    1903, 
By  THE   MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 

Set  up,  electrotyped,  and  published  November,  1903. 


NortoooS  $«ss 

J.  S.  Cushing  &  Co.-  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 

Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


To 
George    P.    Brett 

*<  An  honeft  Stationer  (or  Publisher')  is  he,  that  exercize th 
his  Myftery  (whether  it  be  in  printing,  binding  or  selling  of 
Bookes)  with  more  refpect  to  the  glory  of  God  iff  the  publike 
aduantage  than  to  his  owne  Commodity  &  is  both  an  orna- 
ment &  a  profitable  member  in  a  ciuill  Commonwealth.  .  .  . 
If  he  be  a  Printer  he  makes  confidence  to  exemplefiy  his  Coppy 
fiayrely  &  truly.  If  he  be  a  Booke-bynder,  he  is  no  meere 
Bookefieller  (that  is)  one  who  fielleth  meerely  ynck  &  paper 
bundled  up  together  for  his  owne  aduantage  only :  but  he  is 
a  Chapman  of  Arts,  of  wifidome,  iff  of  much  experience  for 
a  little  money.  .  .  .  The  reputation  ofi  Schollers  is  as  deare 
unto  him  as  his  owne  :  For,  he  acknowledged  that  fir  om  them 
his  Myfitery  had  both  begining  and  means  ofi  continuance. 
He  heartely  hues  &  seekes  the  Profiperity  ofi  his  owne  Corpo- 
ration :  Yet  he  would  not  iniure  the  Uniuerfiityes  to  aduantage 
it.  In  a  word,  he  is  such  a  man  that  the  State  ought  to 
cherifih  him ;  Schollers  to  hue  him  ;  good  Cufitomers  to  fre- 
quent his  shopp ;  and  the  whole  Company  of  Stationers  to 
pray  fior  him." 

—  George  Wither,    1625. 


Contents 


VOL.   I 


CHAPTER 
I. 


II. 
III. 

IV. 
V. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XI. 

XII. 

XIII. 

XIV. 


Apparel  of  the  Puritan  and  Pilgrim 
Fathers  ..... 

Dress  of  the  New  England  Mothers 

Attire  of  Virginia  Dames  and  their 
Neighbors         .... 

A  Vain  Puritan   Grandmother     . 

The    Evolution    of    Coats   and  Waist 

COATS  •-.-... 

Ruffs  and  Bands    .... 
Caps  and  Beavers   in  Colonial  Days 
The  Venerable   Hood     . 
Cloaks  and  their  Cousins     . 
The  Dress  of  Old-time  Children 
Perukes  and  Periwigs    . 

The   Beard 

Pattens,  Clogs,  and  Goloe-shoes  . 
Batts  and  Broags,  Boots  and  Shoes 


49 

97 
l37 

161 

i95 
215 

237 
255 
271 
321 
349 
359 
37i 


List   of  Illustrations 

In  Volume  I 

Madam  Padishal  and  Child  ....  Frontispiece 
This  fine  presentation  of  the  dress  of  a  gentlewoman  and  infant 
child,  in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  hung  in  old  Plym- 
outh homes  in  the  Thomas  and  Stevenson  families  till  it  came  by 
inheritance  to  the  present  owner,  Mrs.  Greely  Stevenson  Curtis 
of  Boston,  Mass.     The  artist  is  unknown. 

John  Endicott  .  ' 5 

Born  in  Dorchester,  Eng.,  1589.  Died  in  Boston,  Mass.,  1665.  He 
emigrated  to  America  in  1628 ;  became  governor  of  the  colony  in 
1644,  and  was  major-general  of  the  colonial  troops.  He  hated 
Indians,  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  Quakers.  He  wears  a  velvet 
skull-cap,  and  a  finger-ring,  which  is  somewhat  unusual;  a  square 
band;  a  richly  fringed  and  embroidered  glove;  and  a  "stiletto" 
beard.    This  portrait  is  in  the  Essex  Institute,  Salem,  Mass. 

Edward  Winslow 7 

Born  in  England,  1595;  died  at  sea,  1655.  One  of  the  founders 
of  the  Plymouth  colony  in  1620;  and  governor  of  that  colony  in 
1633,  1636,  1644.     This  portrait  is  dated  1651.     It  is  in  Pilgrim 

Hall,  Plymouth,  Mass. 

John  Winthrop n 

Born  in  England,  1588;  died  in  Boston,  1649.  Educated  at 
Trinity  College,  Cambridge;  admitted  to  the  Inner  Temple,  1628. 
Made  governor  of  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony  in  1629.  Arrived  in 
Salem,  1630.  His  portrait  by  Van  Dyck  and  a  fine  miniature  exist. 
The  latter  is  owned  by  American  Antiquarian  Society,  Worcester, 
Mass.  This  picture  is  copied  from  a  very  rare  engraving  from  the 
miniature,  which  is  finer  and  even  more  thoughtful  in  expression 
than  the  portrait.  Both  have  the  lace-edged  ruff,  but  the  shape  of 
the  dress  is  indistinct. 

Simon  Bradstreet 14 

Born  in  England,  1603;  died  in  Salem,  Mass.,  1697.  He  was 
governor  of  the  colony  when  he  was  ninety  years  old.  The 
Labadists,  who  visited  him,  wrote:  "  He  is  an  old  man,  quiet  and 
grave  ;  dressed  in  black  silk,  but  not  sumptuously." 

Sir  Richard  Saltonstall facing  18 

A  mayor  of  London  who  came  to  Salem  among  the  first  settlers. 
The  New  England  families  of  his  name  are  all  descended  from 
him.  He  wears  buff-coat  and  trooping  scarf.  This  portrait  was 
painted  by  Rembrandt. 


List  of  Illustrations 


Sir  Walter  Raleigh 21 

Born  in  Devonshire,  Eng.,  1552;  executed  in  London,  1618.  A 
courtier,  poet,  historian,  nobleman,  soldier,  explorer,  and  colonizer. 
He  was  the  favorite  of  Elizabeth;  the  colonizer  of  Virginia;  the 
hero  of  the  Armada;  the  victim  of  King  James.  In  this  portrait 
he  wears  a  slashed  jerkin  ;  a  lace  ruff;  a  broad  trooping  scarf  with 
great  lace  shoulder-knot;  a  jewelled  sword-belt;  full,  embroidered 
breeches ;  lace-edged  garters,  and  vast  shoe-roses,  which  combine 
to  form  a  confused  dress. 

Sir  Walter  Raleigh  and  Son 24 

This  print  was  owned  by  the  author  for  many  years,  with  the 
written  endorsement  by  some  unknown  hand,  Martin  Frobisher 
and  Son.  I  am  glad  to  learn  that  it  is  from  a  painting  by 
Zucchero  of  Raleigh  and  his  son,  and  is  owned  at  Wickham 
Court,  in  Kent,  Eng.,  by  the  descendant  of  one  of  Raleigh's  com- 
panions in  his  explorations.  The  child's  dress  is  less  fantastic 
than  other  portraits  of  English  children  of  the  same  date. 

Robert  Devereux,  Earl  of  Essex   ....  facing  26 

From  an  old  print.    A  general  of  Cromwell's  army. 

Oliver  Cromwell  dissolving  Parliament       .        .        .35 

From  an  old  Dutch  print. 

Sir  William  Waller 37 

A  general  in  Cromwell's  army.  Born,  1597  ;  died,  1668.  He  served 
in  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  This  portrait  is  in  the  National  Portrait 
Gallery. 

Lord  Fairfax facing  38 

A  general  in  Cromwell's  army.     From  an  old  print. 

Mr.  Alderman  Abell  and  Richard  Kilvert  .        .      41 

From  an  old  print. 

Rev.  John  Cotton,  D.D 42 

Born  in  Derby,  Eng.,  1585  ;  died  at  Boston,  Mass.,  in  1652.  A 
Puritan  clergyman  who  settled  in  Boston  in  1633.  He  drew  up 
for  the  colonists,  at  the  request  of  the  General  Court,  an  abstract 
of  the  laws  of  Moses  entitled  Moses  His  Judicials ,  which  was  of 
greatest  influence  in  the  formation  of  the  laws  of  the  colony.  This 
portrait  is  owned  by  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  Esq. 

Rev.  Cotton  Mather,  D.D facing  42 

Born  in  Boston,  Mass.,  1683 ;  died  in  Boston,  Mass.,  1728.  A 
clergyman,  author,  and  scholar.  His  book,  Magnalia  Christi 
Americana,  an  ecclesiastical  history  of  New  England,  is  of  much 
value,  though  most  trying.  He  took  an  active  and  now  much- 
abhorred  part  in  the  Salem  witchcraft.  This  portrait  is  owned  by 
the  American  Antiquarian  Society,  Worcester,  Mass. 

Slashed  Sleeves         47 

From  portraits  temp.  Charles  I.  The  first  is  from  a  Van  Dyck 
portrait  of  the  Earl  of  Stanhope,  and  has  a  rich,  lace-edged  cuff. 
The  second,  with  a  graceful  lawn  undersleeve,  is  from  a  Van 
Dyck  of  Lucius  Cary,  Viscount  Falkland.  The  third  is  from  a 
painting  by  Mytens  of  the  Duke  of  Hamilton.  The  fourth,  by 
Van  Dyck,  is  from  one  of  Lord  Villiers,  Viscount  Grandison. 


List  of  Illustrations  xi 


Mrs.  Katherine  Clark 57 

Born,  1602;  died,i67i.  An  English  gentlewoman  renowned  in  her 
day  for  her  piety  and  charity. 

Lady  Mary  Armine 60 

An  English  lady  of  great  piety,  whose  gifts  to  Christianize  the  In- 
dians make  her  name  appear  in  the  early  history  of  Massachusetts. 
Her  black  domino  and  frontlet  are  of  interest.  This  portrait  was 
painted  about  1650. 

The  Tub-preacher facing  62 

An  old  print  of  a  Quaker  meeting.     Probably  by  Marcel  Lawson. 

Venice  Point  Lace 64 

Owned  by  Mrs.  Robert  Fulton  Crary  of  Poughkeepsie,  N.Y. 

Rebecca  Rawson facing  66 

The  daughter  of  Edward  Rawson,  Secretary  of  State.  Born  in 
Boston  in  1656;  married  in  1679  to  an  adventurer,  Thomas  Rum- 
sey,  who  called  himself  Sir  Thomas  Hale.  She  died  at  sea,  in 
1692.  This  portrait  is  owned  by  New  England  Historic  Genealog- 
ical Society. 

Elizabeth  Paddy facing  72 

Born  in  Plymouth,  Mass.,  in  1641.  Daughter  of  William  Paddy; 
she  married  John  Wensley  of  Plymouth.  Their  daughter  Sarah 
married  Dr.  Isaac  Winslow.  This  portrait  is  in  Pilgrim  Hall, 
Plymouth,  Mass. 

Mrs.  Simeon  Stoddard facing  76 

A  wealthy  Boston  gentlewoman.  This  portrait  was  painted  in  the 
latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century.  It  is  owned  by  the  Massa- 
chusetts Historical  Society. 

Ancient  Black  Lace 78 

Owned  by  Mrs.  Robert  Fulton  Crary,  Poughkeepsie,  N.Y. 

Virago-sleeve 82 

From  a  French  portrait. 

Ninon  de  l'Enclos 84 

Born  in  Paris,  1615  ;  died  in  1705.  Her  dress  has  a  slashed  virago- 
sleeve  and  lace  whisk. 

Lady  Catherine  Howard 88 

Grandchild  of  the  Earl  of  Arundel.  Aged  thirteen  years.  Drawn 
in  1646  by  W.  Hollar. 

Costumes    of    Englishwomen    of     Seventeenth    Cen- 
tury       facing  96 

Plates  from  Ornatus  Mulleins  Anglicanus,  or  Several  Habits  of 
Englishwomen,  1640.  By  Wenceslaus  Hollar,  an  engraver  of 
much  note  and  much  performance ;  born  at  Prague,  1607  ;  died  in 
England,  1677.  This  book  contains  twenty-six  plates  illustrating 
women's  dress  in  all  ranks  of  life  with  absolute  fidelity. 

Gertrude  Schuyler  Livingstone 102 

Second  wife  and  widow  of  Robert  Livingstone.  The  curiously 
plaited  widow's  cap  can  be  seen  under  her  hood. 


xii  List  of  Illustrations 

Mrs.  Magdalen  Beekman facing  104 

Died  in  New  York  in  1730.  Widow  of  Gerardus  Beekman,  who 
died  in  1723. 

Lady  Anne  Clifford 108 

Born,  1590.  Daughter  of  George  Clifford,  Earl  of  Cumberland. 
Painted  in  1603. 

Lady  Herrman in 

Of  Bohemia  Manor,  Maryland.  Wife  of  a  pioneer  settler.  From 
Some  Colonial  Mansions.     Published  by  Henry  T.  Coates  &  Co. 

Elizabeth  Cromwell 113 

Mother  of  Oliver  Cromwell.  She  died  at  Whitehall  in  1654, 
aged  90  years.  This  portrait  is  at  Hinchinbrook,  and  is  owned 
by  the  Earl  of  Sandwich.  It  was  painted  by  Robert  Walker.  Her 
dress  is  described  as  "  a  green  velvet  cardinal,  trimmed  with  gold 
lace."     Her  hood  is  white  satin. 

Pocahontas facing  122 

Daughter  of  Powhatan,  and  wife  of  Mr.  Thomas  Rolfe.  Born 
1593 ;  died  1619 ;  aged  twenty-one  when  this  was  painted.  The 
portrait  is  owned  by  a  member  of  the  Rolfe  family. 

Duchess  of  Buckingham  and  Children  .        .        .        .126 

Painted  in  1626  by  Gerard  Honthorst.  In  the  original  the  Duke 
of  Buckingham  is  also  upon  the  canvas.  He  was  George  Villiers, 
the  "  Steenie  "  of  James  I,  who  was  assassinated  by  John  Felton. 
The  duchess  was  the  daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Rutland.  The  little 
daughter  was  afterwards  Duchess  of  Richmond  and  Lenox.  The 
baby  was  George,  the  second  Duke  of  Buckingham,  poet,  poli- 
tician, courtier,  the  friend  of  Charles  II.  The  picture  is  now  in 
the  National  Portrait  Gallery. 

A  Woman's  Doublet facing  130 

Worn  by  the  infamous  Mrs.  Anne  Turner. 

A  Puritan  Dame 142 

Plate  from  Ornatus  Muliebris  Anglicanus. 

Penelope  Winslow facing  146 

Painted  in  1651.  Dress  dull  olive;  mantle  bright  red ;  pearl  neck- 
lace, ear-rings  and  pearl  bandeau  in  hair.  The  hair  is  curled  as 
the  hair  in  portraits  of  Queen  Henrietta  Maria.  In  Pilgrim  Hall, 
Plymouth,  Mass. 

Gold-fringed  Gloves  of  Governor  Leverett       .        -151 

In  Essex  Institute,  Salem,  Mass. 

Embroidered  Petticoat-band,  1750 154 

Bright-colored  crewels  on  linen.  Owned  by  the  Misses  Manning 
of  Salem,  Mass. 

Blue  Damask  Gown  and  Quilted  Satin  Petticoat,  facing  156 

These  were  owned  by  Mrs.  James  Lovell,  who  was  born  1735; 
died,  1817.  Through  her  only  daughter,  Mrs.  Pickard,  who  died 
in  1812,  they  came  to  her  only  child,  Mary  Pickard  (Mrs.  Henry 
Ware,  Jr.),  whose  heirs  now  own  them.  They  are  in  the  keeping 
of  the  Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts. 


List  of  Illustrations  xiii 


A  Plain  Jerkin 164 

This  portrait  is  of  Martin  Frobisher,  hero  of  the  Armada;  ex- 
plorer in  1576,  1577,  and  1578  for  the  Northwestern  Passage,  and 
discoverer  of  Frobisher's  Bay.     He  died  in  1594. 

Cloth  Doublet facing  166 

This  portrait  is  of  Edward  Courtenay,  Earl  of  Devonshire. 
Owned  by  the  Duke  of  Bedford.  It  shows  a  plain  cloth  doublet 
with  double  row  of  turreted  welts  at  the  shoulder.  Horace  Wal- 
pole  says  $>f  this  portrait,  "  He  is  quite  in  the  style  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beth's lovers ;  red-bearded,  and  not  comely." 

James,  Duke  of  York facing  168 

Born,  1633.  Afterwards  James  II  of  England.  This  scene  in  a 
tennis-court  was  painted  about  1643. 

Embroidered  Jerkin 171 

This  portrait  is  of  George  Carew,  Earl  of  Totnes.  It  was  painted 
byZucchero,  and  is  owned  by  the  Earl  ofVerulam.  He  wears  a 
rich  jerkin  with  four  laps  on  each  side  below  the  belt ;  it  is  em- 
broidered in  sprigs,  and  guarded  on  the  seams.  The  sleeves  are 
detached.     He  wears  also  a  rich  sword-belt  and  ruff. 

John  Lilburne 173 

Born  in  Greenwich,  Eng.,  in  1614;  died  in  1659.  A  Puritan  sol- 
dier, politician,  and  pamphleteer.  He  was  fined,  whipped,  pilloried, 
tried  for  treason,  sedition,  controversy,  libel.  He  was  imprisoned 
in  the  Tower,  Newgate,  Tyburn,  and  the  Castle.  He  was  a  Puritan 
till  he  turned  Quaker.  His  sprawling  boots,  dangling  knee-points, 
and  silly  little  short  doublet  form  a  foolish  dress. 

Colonel  William  Legge 177 

Born  in  1609.  Died  in  1672.  He  was  a  stanch  Royalist.  His 
portrait  is  by  Jacob  Huysmans,  and  is  in  the  National  Portrait 
Gallery. 

Sir  Thomas  Orchard  Knight,  1646 179 

From  an  old  print  indorsed  "  S  Glover  ad  vivum  delineavit  1646." 
He  is  in  characteristic  court-dress,  with  slashed  sleeves,  laced  cloak, 
laced  garters,  and  shoe-roses.  His  hair  and  beard  are  like  those 
of  Charles  II. 

The  English  Antick .        .     181 

From  a  broadside  of  1646. 

George  I  of  England facing  184 

Born  in  Hanover,  1660.  Died  in  Hanover,  1727.  Crowned  King 
of  England  in  1714.  This  portrait  is  by  Sir  Godfrey  Kneller,  and 
is  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery.  It  is  remarkable  for  its  ribbons 
and  curious  shoes. 

Three  Cassock  Sleeves  and  a  Buff-coat  Sleeve  .        .     1S6 

Temp.  Charles  I.  The  first  sleeve  is  from  a  portrait  of  Lord  Bed- 
ford. The  second,  with  shoulder-knot  of  ribbon,  was  worn  by 
Algernon  Sidney ;  the  third  is  from  a  Van  Dyck  portrait  of  Vis- 
count Grandison  ;  the  fourth,  the  sleeve  of  a  curiously  slashed 
buff-coat  worn  by  Sir  Philip  Sidney. 


List  of  Illustrations 


Henry  Bennet,  Earl  of  Arlington 187 

Born,  1618 ;  died,  1685.  From  the  original  by  Sir  Peter  Lely. 
This  is  asserted  to  be  the  costume  chosen  by  Charles  II  in  1661 
"  to  wear  forever." 

Figures  from  Funeral   Procession   of   the   Duke  of 

Albemarle  in  1670 facing  188 

These  drawings  of  "  Gentlemen,"  "  Earls,"  "  Clergymen,"  "  Physi- 
cians," and  "  Poor  Men  "  are  by  F.  Sanford,  Lancaster  Herald, 
and  are  from  his  engraving  of  the  Funeral  Procession  of  George 
Monk,  Duke  of  Albemarle. 

Earl  of  Southampton,  Henry  Wriothesley  .        facing  190 

Born,  1573.  Died  in  The  Netherlands  in  1624.  He  was  the  friend 
of  Shakespere,  and  governor  of  the  Virginia  Company.  This  por- 
trait is  by  Mierevelt. 

A  Bowdoin  Portrait facing  196 

This  fine  portrait  is  by  a  master's  hand.  The  name  of  the  subject 
is  unknown.  The  initials  would  indicate  that  he  was  a  Bowdoin, 
or  a  Baudouine,  which  was  the  name  of  the  original  emigrant.  It 
has  been  owned  by  the  Bowdoin  family  until  it  was  presented  to 
Bowdoin  College,  Brunswick,  Me.,  where  it  now  hangs  in  the 
Walker  Art  Building. 

William  Pyncheon 200 

Born,  1590;  died,  1670.  This  portrait  was  painted  in  1657.  It  is 
in  an  unusual  dress,  with  the  only  double  row  of  buttons  I  have 
seen  on  a  portrait  of  that  date.  It  also  shows  no  hair  under  the 
close  cap. 

Jonathan  Edwards,  D.D 202 

Born,  Windsor,  Conn.,  1703.  Died,  Princeton,  N.J.,  1758.  A 
theologian,  metaphysician,  missionary,  author,  and  president  of 
Princeton  University. 

George  Curwen facing  204 

Born  in  England,  1610;  died  in  Salem,  1685.  He  came  to  Salem  in 
1638,  where  he  was  the  most  prominent  merchant,  and  com- 
manded a  troop  of  horse,  whereby  he  acquired  his  title  of  Captain. 
He  is  in  military  dress.  Portrait  owned  by  Essex  Institute,  Salem, 
Mass. 

Walking-stick  and  Lace  Frill,  1660       ....     207 

These  articles  are  in  the  Essex  Institute,  Salem,  Mass. 

William  Coddington 210 

Born  in  Leicestershire,  Eng.,  1601 ;  died  in  Rhode  Island,  1678. 
One  of  the  founders  of  the  Rhode  Island  Colony,  and  governor  for 
many  years. 

Thomas  Fayerweather 211 

Born,  1692;  died,  1733,  in  Boston.  Married,  in  1718,  Hannah 
Waldo,  sister  of  Brigadier-general  Samuel  Waldo.  This  por- 
trait is  by  Smybcrt.  It  is  owned  by  his  descendants,  Miss  Eliza- 
beth L.  Bond  and  Miss  Catherine  Harris  Bond,  of  Cambridge, 
Mass. 

"King"  Carter  in  Youth facing  212 


List  of  Illustrations 


City  Flat-cap 217 

Worn  by  "  Bilious  "  Bale,  who  died  in  1563.  His  square  beard, 
coif,  and  citizen's  flat-cap  were  worn  by  Englishmen  till  1620. 

King  James  I  of  England 220 

This  portrait  was  painted  before  he  was  king  of  England.  It  is 
now  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery. 

Fulke  Greville,  Lord  Brooke 223 

In  doublet,  with  curious  slashed  tabs  or  bands  at  the  waist,  form- 
ing a  roll  like  a  woman's  farthingale.  The  hat,  with  jewelled  hat- 
band, is  of  a  singular  and  ugly  shape. 

James  Douglas,  Earl  of  Morton 225 

His  hat,  band,  and  jerkin  are  unusual. 

Elihu  Yale facing  228 

Born  in  Boston,  Mass.,  in  1648.  Died  in  England  in  1721.  He 
founded  Yale  College,  now  Yale  University.  This  portrait  is  owned 
by  Yale  University,  New  Haven,  Conn. 

Thomas  Cecil,  First  Earl  of  Exeter     ....     230 

Died  in  1621. 

Cornelius  Steinwyck 232 

The  wealthiest  merchant  of  New  Amsterdam  in  the  seventeenth 
century.  This  portrait  is  owned  by  the  New  York  Historical 
Society. 

Hat  with  Glove  as  a  Favor 234 

From  portrait  of  George  Clifford,  Earl  of  Cumberland.  He  died 
in  1605. 

GULIELMA   SPRINGETT  PENN 240 

First  wife  of  William  Penn.  Born,  1644;  died,  1694.  The  original 
painting  is  on  glass.  Owned  by  the  heirs  of  Henry  Swan,  Dor- 
king, Eng. 

Hannah  Callowhill  Penn 242 

Second  wife  of  William  Penn ;  from  a  portrait  now  in  Blackwell 
Hall,  County  Durham,  Eng. 

Madame  de  Miramion 245 

Born,  1629 ;  died  in  Paris,  1696. 

The    Strawberry    Girl 246 

From  Tempest's  Cries  of  London. 

Opera  Hood,  or  Cardinal,  of  Black  Silk     .        .        .    247 

It  is  now  in  Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts. 

Quilted  Hood •    .        .        .    248 

Owned  by  Miss  Mary  Atkinson  of  Doylestown,  Pa. 

Pink  Silk  Hood 251 

Owned  by  Miss  Alice  Browne  of  Salem,  Mass. 

Pug  Hood 252 

Owned  by  Miss  Alice  Browne  of  Salem,  Mass. 


List  of  Illustrati 


ons 


Scarlet  Cloak facing  258 

This  fine  broadcloth  cloak  and  hood  were  worn  by  Judge  Curwen. 
They  are  in  perfect  preservation,  owing,  in  later  years,  to  the  ex- 
cellent care  given  them  by  their  present  owner,  Miss  Bessie 
Curwen,  of  Salem,  Mass.,  a  descendant  of  the  original  owner. 

Judge  Stoughton facing  260 

Woman's  Cloak 263 

From  Hogarth. 

A  Capuchin 266 

From  Hogarth. 

Lady  Caroline  Montagu 268 

Daughter  of  Duke  of  Buccleuch.  Painted  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds 
in  1776. 

John  Oulncy facing  274 

Born,  1686.  This  portrait  is  owned  by  Brooks  Adams,  Esq., 
Boston,  Mass. 

Miss  Campion facing  276 

From  Andrew  W.  Tuer's  History  of  the  Hornbook.  This  portrait 
has  hung  for  two  centuries  in  an  Essex  manor-house.  Its  date, 
1661,  is  but  nine  years  earlier  than  the  portraits  of  the  Gibbes  chil- 
dren, and  the  dress  is  the  same.  The  cavalier  hat  and  cuffs  are 
the  only  varying  detail. 

Infant's  Cap 279 

Tambour  work,  1790. 

Eleanor  Foster facing  280 

Born,  1746.  She  married  Dr.  Nathaniel  Coffin,  of  Portland,  Me., 
and  became  the  mother  of  the  beautiful  Martha,  who  married  Rich- 
ard C.  Derby.  This  portrait  was  painted  in  1755.  It  is  owned  by 
Mrs.  Greely  Stevenson  Curtis  of  Boston,  Mass. 

William,  Prince  of  Orange 282 

From  an  old  print. 

Mrs.  Theodore  S.  Sedgwick  and  Daughter   .         facing  288 

Mrs.  Sedgwick  was  Pamela  Dwight.  This  portrait  was  painted  by 
Ralph  Earle,  and  exhibits  one  of  his  peculiarities.  The  home  of 
the  subject  of  the  portrait  is  shown  through  an  open  window,  Ihough 
the  immediate  surroundings  are  a  room  within  the  house.  The 
child  is  Catherine  M.  Sedgwick,  the  poet.  This  painting  is  owned 
in  Stockbridge  by  members  of  the  family. 

Infant  Child  of  Francis  Hopkinson,  the  Signer  .        .    289 

A  drawing  in  crayon  by  the  child's  father.  The  child  carries  a 
coral  and  bells. 

Mary  Seton 291 

1763.  Died  in  1800,  aged  forty.  Married  John  Wilkes  of  New 
York.     White  frock  and  blue  scarf. 

The  Bowdoin  Children facing  294 

Lady  Temple  and  Governor  James  Bowdoin  in  childhood.  The 
artist  of  this  pleasing  portrait  is  unknown.  I  think  it  was  painted 
by  Blackburn.  It  is  now  in  the  Walker  Art  Gallery,  at  Bowdoin 
College,  Brunswick,  Me. 


List  of  Illustrations 


Miss  Lydia  Robinson 300 

Aged  twelve  years,  daughter  of  Colonel  James  Robinson,  Salem, 
Mass.  Painted  by  M.  Corne  in  1808.  Owned  by  the  Essex  In- 
stitute, Salem,  Mass. 

Knitted  Flaxen  Mittens 303 

These  are  knitted  upon  finest  wire  needles,  of  linen  thread, 
which  had  been  spun,  and  the  flax  raised  and  prepared  by  the 
knitter. 

Mrs.  Elizabeth  (Lux)  Russell  and  Daughter    .  facing  304 
Christening  Shirt  and  Mitts  of  Governor  Bradford     .     306 

White  linen  with  pinched  sleeves  and  chaney  ruffles  and  finger- 
tips.    Owned  by  Essex  Institute,  Salem,  Mass. 

Flanders  Lace  Mitts 307 

These  infant's  mitts  were  worn  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  came 
to  Salem  with  the  first  emigrants.  Owned  by  Essex  Institute, 
Salem,  Mass. 

Infant's  Adjustable  Cap    .......    309 

This  has  curious  shirring-strings  to  make  it  fit  heads  of  various 
sizes.  It  is  home  spun  and  woven,  and  the  lace  edging  is  home 
knit. 

Rev.  John  P.  Dabney,  when  a  Child  in  1806  .        .316 

This  portrait  of  a  Salem  minister  in  childhood  is  in  jacket  and 
trousers,  with  openwork  collar  and  ruffles.  It  is  now  owned  by 
the  Essex  Institute,  Salem,  Mass. 

Robert  Gibbes      .......         facing  316 

Born,  1665.  This  portrait  is  dated  1670.  It  is  owned  by  Miss 
Sarah  B.  Hager  of  Kendal  Green,  Mass. 

Nankeen  Breeches,  with  Silver  Buttons.    1790   .        .318 
Ralph  Izard,  when  a  Little  Boy    .        .        .        .        -319 

Born  in  Charleston,  S.  C,  1742;  died  in  1804.  Painted  in  1750. 
He  was  United  States  Senator  1789-1795.  This  debonair  little 
figure  in  blue  velvet,  silk-embroidered  waistcoat,  silken  hose, 
buckled  shoes,  and  black  hat,  gold-laced,  is  a  miniature  court- 
ier. The  portrait  is  now  owned  by  William  E.  Huger,  Esq.,  of 
Charleston,  S.C. 

Governor  and  Reverend  Gurdon  Saltonstall      .        .    324 

Born  in  1666 ;  died  in  1724.  Governor  of  Connecticut,  1708-24. 
He  was  also  ordained  a  minister  of  the  church  at  New  London. 

Mayor  Rip  van  Dam 325 

Mayor  of  New  York  in  17 10. 

Judge  Abraham  de  Peyster  of  New  York     .        .        .    327 
Governor  de  Bienville,  Jean  Baptiste  Lemoine   .        .    328 

Born  in  Montreal,  Can.,  1680.  Died  in  1768.  French  Governor 
of  Louisiana  for  many  years.  He  founded  New  Orleans.  The 
original  is  in  Longeuil,  Can. 


List  of  Illustrations 


Daniel  Waldo 329 

Born  in  Boston,  1724;   died  in  1708.    Married  Rebecca  Salis- 
bury. 
Rev.  John  Marsh,  Hartford,  Conn.          .        .        .        .331 
John  Adams  in  Youth 332 

Born  in  Braintree,  Mass.,  1735 ;  died  at  Quincy,  Mass.,  1826. 
Second  President  of  the  United  States,  1797-1801.  He  was  a 
member  of  Congress,  signer  of  Declaration  of  Independence,  Com- 
missioner to  France,  Ambassador  to  The  Netherlands,  Peace 
Commissioner  to  Great  Britain,  Minister  to  Court  of  St.  James. 
This  portrait  in  youth  is  in  a  wig.  Throughout  life  he  wore  his 
hair  bushed  out  at  the  ears. 

Jonathan  Edwards,  D.D 334 

Bom  in  1745;  died  in  1801.  He  was  a  son  of  the  great  Jonathan 
Edwards,  and  was  President  of  Union  College,  Schenectady,  1799- 
1801.  This  portrait  shows  the  fashion  of  dressing  the  hair  when 
wigs  and  powder  had  been  banished  and  the  hair  hung  lank  and 
long  in  the  neck. 

Patrick  Henry 335 

Born  in  Virginia,  1736;  died  in  Charlotte  County,  Va.,  in  1799. 
An  orator,  patriot,  and  a  leader  in  the  American  Revolution.  He 
organized  the  Committees  of  Correspondence,  was  a  member  of 
Continental  Congress,  1774,  of  the  Virginia  Convention,  1775,  and 
was  governor  of  Virginia  for  several  terms.  This  portrait  shows 
him  in  lawyer's  close  wig  and  robe. 

"  King  "  Carter   .        .         .        .  .        .         facing  336 

Died,  1732. 

Judge  Benjamin  Lynde,  of  Salem  and  Boston,  Mass.  .    337 

Died,  1745.     Painted  by  Smybert. 

John  Rutledge 339 

Born,  Charleston,  S.C.,  1739;  died,  1800.  He  was  member  of 
Congress,  governor  of  South  Carolina,  chief  justice  of  Supreme 
Court.     His  hair  is  tied  in  cue. 

Campaign,  Ramillies,  Bob,  and  Pigtail  Wigs         .        .    340 
Rev.  William  Welsteed 341 

From  an  engraving  by  Copley,  his  only  engraving. 

Thomas  Hopkinson facing  342 

Born  in  London,  1709.  Came  to  America  in  1731.  Married  Mary 
Johnson  in  1736.  Made  Judge  of  the  Admiralty  in  1741.  Died 
in  1751.  He  was  the  father  of  Francis  the  Signer.  This  portrait 
is  believed  to  be  by  Sir  Godfrey  Kneller. 

Rev.  Dr.  Barnard 344 

A  Connecticut  clergyman. 

Andrew  Ellicott 347 

Born,  1754;  died,  1820.  A  Maryland  gentleman  of  wealth  and 
position. 

Herbert  Westphaling 352 

Bishop  of  Hereford,  Eng. 


356 


List  of  Illustrations  xix 

Herald  Cornelius  Vandum ,., 

Born    1483;    died,  1577,  aged  ninety-four  years.    Yeoman 'of  the 

kT     undKUSh^r-t0  Henry  VI11'  Edward  VI,  Mary,  and  Eliza- 
beth.    His  beard  is  unique. 

Scotch  Beard      . 

Worn  by  Alexander  Ross,  1655. 

Dr.  William  Slater  ....  ,r_ 

Cathedral  beard.  '   "       '  *      357 

Dr.  John  Dee       .... 

S?roln"PJ^id0"'-I527:  died'l6°8'      An  English  mathematician",     35? 
astrologer,  physician,  author,  and  magician.     He  wrote  seventv- 

welf  '•  a°°™ n'r     y  °1  mfg[?.-     His  "  Piq^-a-devant  "  beard  might 
well     a  man  s  eye  out-pike.  a 

Iron  and  Leather  Pattens,  1760  ,<., 

Owned  by  author.  "  3°2 

Oak,  Iron,  and  Leather  Clogs  .        .  ,fi, 

In  Museum  of  Bucks  County  Historical  Society,  Penn.        '          "  J 
English  Clogs     . 

365 


368 


Chopines 

Drawing  from   Chopines   in    the   Ashmolean "  Museum,   Oxford      3   ? 
The  tallest  chopine  had  a  sole  about  nine  inches  thick. 

Wedding  Clogs    ...... 

These  clogs  are  of  silk  brocade,  and  were  made  to  match  brocade 
slippers.  The  one  with  pointed  toe  would  fit  the  brocaded  shoes 
of  the  year  1760.  The  other  has  with  it  a  high-heeled,  black  satin 
slipper  of  the  year  1780,  to  show  how  they  were  worn.  They  forced 
a  curious  shuffling  step.  xiicyiuicea 

Clogs  of  Pennsylvania  Dutch -6 

Child's  Clogs       .        .        . 

About  1780.     Owned  by  Bucks  County  Historical  Society. "  '      3?° 

Copley  Family  Picture     ....  '    facins.  ,7. 

l\tS  K°UP'  co,nsistin,e  of  the  artist,  John  Singleton  Copley,  his 

IfeCtrS™^  Yrng  Wld°W'  Susa™ah  Farnham;  his 
wife  s  lather,  Richard  Clarke,  a  most  respected  Boston  merchant 

the0fo?r5,^farhy,Until^ined  by  the  War  of  the  Revolution  ;  and 
Tohn  Sinl  etC°P  6y  ChlId/ CnK  Elizabeth  is  between  four  and  five ; 
R2  1  gJu  n'  J^  ]S  the  bov  of  three-  who  afterwards  became 
fatherS±U1'S^  ^  1S  ag£d  tW°'  and  an  infant  is  in  *e  grand! 
abnnt  thft  PtY  WlS  b0m  in    W'  and   must  have  been 

about  thirty-seven  when  this  was  painted  in  1775.  It  is  deemed 
by  many  his  masterpiece.  The  portrait  is  owned  bv  Mr  Amory 
but  is  now  ,n  the  custody  of  the  Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Art?  Tt 

alsTutlyfrarT       "  a'm°St  ""^  in  "^  ^  tint  beinS 

Wedding  Slippers  and  Brocade  Strip,  i7i->  ,7c 

Huds^n^N.Y!"3'   Th°maS  K°binson  Harris-  of  Scarboro  on  the     J   5 


xx  List  of  Illustrations 


Jack-boots 377 

Owned  by  Lord  Fairfax  of  Virginia. 
Joshua  Warner facing  378 

A  Portsmouth  gentleman.  This  portrait  is  now  in  the  Boston 
Museum  of  Fine  Arts. 

Shoe  and  Knee  Buckles 380 

They  are  shoe-buckles,  breeches-buckles,  garter-buckles,  stock- 
buckles.  Some  are  cut  silver  and  gold;  others  are  cut  steel ;  some 
are  paste.  Some  of  these  were  owned  by  Dr.  Edward  Holyoke,  of 
Salem,  and  are  now  owned  by  Miss  Susan  W.  Osgood,  of  Salem, 
Mass. 

Wedding  Slippers 382 

Worn  in  1760  by  granddaughter  of  Governor  Simon  Bradstreet. 
Owned  by  Miss  Mary  S.  Cleveland,  of  Salem,  Mass.  Their  make 
and  finish  are  curious;  they  have  paste  buckles. 

Abigail  Bromfield  Rogers        ....         facing  384 

Painted  by  Copley  in  Europe.  Owned  by  Miss  Annette  Rogers,  of 
Boston,  Mass. 

Slippers 385 

Worn  by  Mrs.  Carroll  with  the  brocade  silk  sacque.  They  are 
embroidered  in  the  colors  of  the  brocade. 

White  Kid  Slippers,  18 10 387 

Owned  by  author. 


CHAPTER    I 

APPAREL    OF    THE    PURITAN    AND    PILGRIM    FATHERS 

"  Deep-skirted  doublets,  puritanic  capes 
Which  now  would  render  men  like  upright  apes 
Was  comelier  wear,  our  wiser  fathers  thought 
Than  the  cast  fashions  from  all  Europe  brought." 

—  "New  England's  Crisis,"  Benjamin  Tompson,  1675. 


"  /  am  neither  Niggard  nor  Cynic  to  the  due  Bravery  of  the 
true  Gentry.       _  UThg  simpk  Cobbler  of  Aiawam)-  j   Ward>  i?I3 


"  Never  was  it  happier  in  England  than  when  an  English- 
man was  known  abroad  by  his  own  cloth  ;  and  contented  himself 
at  home  with  his  fine  russet  carsey  hosen,  and  a  warm  slop ; 
his  coat,  gown,  and  cloak  of  broiun,  blue  or  putre,  with  some 
pretty  furnishings  of  velvet  or  fur,  and  a  doublet  of  sad- 
tawnie  or  black  velvet  or  comely  silk,  without  such  cuts  and 
gawrish  colours  as  are  worn  in  these  dayes  by  those  who  think 
themselves  the  gayest  men  when  they  have  most  diversities  of 
jagges  and  changes  of  colours." 

—  "Chronicles,"  Holinshed,  1578. 


Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

CHAPTER    I 

APPAREL    OF    THE     PURITAN    AND     PILGRIM     FATHERS 

T  is  difficult  to  discover  the  reasons,  to 
trace  the  influences  which  have  resulted 
in  the  production  in  the  modern  mind 
of  that  composite  figure  which  serves 
to  the  everyday  reader,  the  heedless 
observer,  as  the  counterfeit  presentment  of  the 
New  England  colonist,  —  the  Boston  Puritan  or 
Plymouth  Pilgrim.  We  have  a  very  respectable 
notion,  a  fairly  true  picture,  of  Dutch  patroon, 
Pennsylvania  Quaker,  and  Virginia  planter;  but  we 
see  a  very  unreal  New  Englishman.  This  "  gray  old 
Gospeller,  sour  as  midwinter,"  appears  with  good- 
wife  or  dame  in  the  hastily  drawn  illustrations  of 
our  daily  press  ;  we  find  him  outlined  with  greater 
care  but  equal  inaccuracy  in  our  choicer  periodical 
literature ;  we  have  him  depicted  by  artists  in  our 
handsome  books  and  on  the  walls  of  our  art 
museums ;  he  is  cut  in  stone  and  cast  in  bronze 
for  our  halls  and  parks  ;  he  is  dressed  by  actors  for 
a  part  in  some  historical  play  ;  he  is  furbished  up 
with  conglomerate  and  makeshift  garments  by  en- 
thusiastic and  confident  young  folk  in  tableau  and 


4  Two   Centuries  of  Costume 

fancy-dress  party ;  he  is  richly  and  amply  attired 
by  portly,  self-satisfied  members  of  our  patriotic- 
hereditary  societies  ;  we  constantly  see  these  figures 
garbed  in  semblance  in  some  details,  yet  never  in 
verisimilitude  as  a  whole  figure. 

We  are  wont  to  think  of  our  Puritan  forbears,  in- 
deed we  are  determined  to  think  of  them,  garbed  in 
sombre  sad-colored   garments,  in    a    life    devoid  of 
color,  warmth,   or   fragrance.       But   sad    color  was 
not  dismal  and  dull  save  in  name  ;  it  was  brown  in 
tone,  and  brown  is  warm,  and  being  a  primitive  color 
is,  like  many  primitive  things,  cheerful.      Old  Eng- 
land was  garbed  in    hearty  honest   russet,  even    in 
the  days  of  our  colonization.       Read  the  list  of  the 
garments  of  any  master  of  the  manor,  of  the  honest 
English  yeoman,  of  our  own  sturdy    English  emi- 
grants from  manor  and  farm  in  Suffolk  and   Essex. 
What  did  they  wear  across  seas  ?     What  did  they  wear 
in  the  New  World  ?      What  they  wore  in   England, 
namely:     Doublets   of   leathers,  all   brown   in    tint; 
breeches   of  various   tanned  skins  and    hides  ;    un- 
tanned     leather    shoes;    jerkins     of  "  filomot "    or 
"phillymort"  (feuille  morte),  dead-leaf  color;   buff- 
coats    of  fine    buff  leather;     tawny    camlet    cloaks 
and    jackets     of    "  du     Boys  "     (which    was    wood 
color);  russet  hose;  horseman's  coats  of  tan-colored 
linsey-woolsey  or  homespun  ginger-lyne  or  brown 
perpetuana;     fawn-colored     mandillions     and   deer- 
colored  cassocks  —  all  brown;  and  sometimes  a  hat 
of  natural  beaver.      Here  is  a  "  falding  "  doublet  of 
"treen  color" — and  what  is  treen  but  wooden    and 
wood  color  is  brown  again. 


Apparel  of  the  Puritan  and  Pilgrim  Fathers     5 


It  was  a  fitting  dress  for  their  conditions  of  life. 
The  colonists  lived  close  to  nature  —  they  touched 
the  beginnings  of  things  ;  and  we  are  close  to  nature 
when  all  dress  in  russet.  The  homely  "butternuts" 
of  the  Kentucky  mountains  express  this ;  so  too 
does  khaki,  a  good,  simple  native  dye  and  stuff;  so 
eagerly  welcomed,  so  closely  cherished,  as  all  good 
and  primitive  things 
should  be. 

So  when  I  think  of 
my  sturdy  Puritan  for- 
bears in  the  summer 
planting  of  Salem  and 
of  Boston,  I  see  them 
in  "  honest  russet  ker- 
sey "  ;  gay  too  with  the 
bright  stamell-red  of 
their  waistcoats  and  the 
grain-red  liningsofman- 
dillions  ;  scarlet-capped 
are  they,  and  enlivened 
with  many  a  great  scar- 
let-hooded cloak.  I  see  them  in  this  attire  on  ship- 
board, where  they  were  greeted  off  Salem  with  "  a 
smell  from  the  shore  like  the  smell  of  a  garden"; 
I  see  them  landing  in  happy  June  amid  "  sweet  wild 
strawberries  and  fair  single  roses."  I  see  them  walk- 
ing along  the  little  lanes  and  half-streets  in  which  for 
many  years  bayberry  and  sweet-fern  lingered  in  dustv 
fragrant  clumps  by  the  roadside. 

"  Scented  with  Csdar  and  Sweet  Fern 
From  Heats  reflection  dry," 


Governor  John  Endicott. 


6  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

wrote  of  that  welcoming  shore  one  colonist  who  came 
on  thefirst  ship,  and  notedin  rhyme  what  he  foundand 
saw  and  felt  and  smelt.  And  I  see  the  forefathers 
standing  under  the  hot  little  cedar  trees  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts coast,  not  sober  in  sad  color,  but  cheery  in 
russet  and  scarlet ;  and  sweetbrier  and  strawberries, 
bayberry  and  cedar,  smell  sweetly  and  glow  genially 
in  that  summer  sunlight  which  shines  down  on  us 
through  all  these  two  centuries. 

We  have  ample  sources  from  which  to  learn  pre- 
cisely what  was  worn  by  these  first  colonists  —  men 
and  women  —  gentle  and  simple.  We  have  mi- 
nute "  Lists  of  Apparell  "  furnished  by  the  Coloni- 
zation Companies  to  the  male  colonists ;  we  have 
also  ample  lists  of  apparel  supplied  to  individual 
emigrants  of  varied  degree ;  we  have  inventories 
in  detail  of  the  personal  estates  of  all  those  who 
died  in  the  colonies  even  in  the  earliest  vears  —  in- 
ventories wherein  even  a  half-worn  pair  of  gloves  is 
gravely  set  down,  appraised  in  value,  sworn  to,  and 
entered  in  the  town  records  ;  we  have  wills  giving 
equal  minuteness  ;  we  have  even  the  articles  of  dress 
themselves  preserved  from  moth  and  rust  and  mil- 
dew-; we  have  private  letters  asking  that  supplies  of 
clothing  be  sent  across  seas  —  clothing  substantial 
and  clothing  fashionable  ;  we  have  ships'  bills  of 
lading  showing  that  these  orders  were  carried  out ; 
we  have  curiously  minute  private  letters  giving  quaint 
descriptions  and  hints  of  new  and  modish  wearing 
apparel ;  we  have  sumptuary  laws  telling  what 
articles  of  clothing  must  not  be  worn  by  those  of 
mean  estate ;  we  have  court  records  showing    trials 


Apparel  of  the  Puritan  and  Pilgrim  Fathers     7 


under  these  laws;  we  have  ministers'  sermons  de- 
nouncing excessive  details  of  fashion,  enumerating 
and  almost  describing  the  offences  ;  and  we  have  also 
a  goodly  number  of  portraits  of  men  and  a  few  of 
women.  I  give  in  this  chapter  excellent  portraits 
of  the  first  governors,  Endicott,  Winthrop,  Brad- 
street,  Winslow ;  and  others  could  be  added.  Hav- 
ing all  these,  do  we  need 
fashion-plates  or  maga- 
zines of  the  modes  ?  We 
have  also  for  the  early 
years  great  instruction 
through  comparison  and 
inference  in  knowing 
the  English  fashions  of 
those  dates  as  revealed 
through  inventories, 
compotuses,  accounts, 
diaries,  letters,  portraits, 
prints,  carvings,  and 
effigies  ;  and  American 
fashions  varied  little 
from   English   ones. 

It  is  impossible  to  disassociate  the  history  of  cos- 
tume from  the  general  history  of  the  country  where 
such  dress  is  worn.  Nor  could  any  one  write  upon 
dress  with  discrimination  and  balance  unless  he  knew 
thoroughly  the  dress  of  all  countries  and  likewise  the 
history  of  all  countries.  Of  the  special  country,  he 
must  know  more  than  general  history,  for  the  rela- 
tions of  small  things  to  great  things  are  too  close. 
Influences   apparently  remote   prove    vital.     At   no 


Governor  Edward  Winslow. 


8  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

time  was  history  told  in  dress,  and  at  no  period  was 
dress  influenced  by  historical  events  more  than  dur- 
ing the  seventeenth  century  and  in  the  dress  of 
English-speaking  folk.  The  writer  on  dress  should 
know  the  temperament  and  character  of  the  dress 
wearer  ;  this  was  of  special  bearing  in  the  seventeenth 
century.  It  would  be  thought  by  any  one  ignorant 
of  the  character  of  the  first  Puritan  settlers,  and  in- 
different to  or  ignorant  of  historical  facts,  that  in  a 
new  world  with  all  the  hardships,  restraints,  lacks, 
and  inconveniences,  no  one,  even  the  vainest  woman, 
would  think  much  upon  dress,  save  that  it  should 
be  warm,  comfortable,  ample,  and  durable.  But,  in 
truth,  such  was  not  the  case.  Even  in  the  first  years 
the  settlers  paid  close  attention  to  their  attire,  to  its 
richness,  its  elegance,  its  modishness,  and  watched 
narrowly  also  the  attire  of  their  neighbors,  not  only 
from  a  distinct  liking  for  dress,  but  from  a  careful 
regard  of  social  distinctions  and  from  a  regard  for 
the  proprieties  and  relations  of  life.  Dress  was  a 
badge  of  rank,  of  social  standing  and  dignity  ;  and 
class  distinctions  were  just  as  zealously  guarded  in 
America,  the  land  of  liberty,  as  in  England.  The 
Puritan  church  preached  simplicity  of  dress  ;  but  the 
church  attendants  never  followed  that  preaching. 
All  believed,  too,  that  dress  had  a  moral  effect,  as  it 
certainly  does  ;  that  to  dress  orderly  and  well  and 
convenable  to  the  existing  fashions  helped  to  pre- 
serve the  morals  of  the  individual  and  general  wel- 
fare of  the  community.  Eagerly  did  the  settlers 
seek  every  year,  every  season,  by  every  incoming 
ship,  by  every  traveller,  to  learn  the  changes  of  fash- 


Apparel  of  the  Puritan  and  Pilgrim  Fathers     9 

ions  in  Europe.  The  first  native-born  poet,  Benja- 
min Tompson,  is  quoted  in  the  heading  of  this 
chapter  in  a  wail  over  thus  following  new  fashions, 
a  wail  for  the  "  good  old  times,"  as  has  been  the  cry 
of  "  old  fogy  "  poets  and  philosophers  since  the  days 
of  the  ancient  classics. 

We  have  ample  proof  of  the  Jove  of  dignity,  of 
form,  of  state,  which  dominated  even  in  the  first 
struggling  days;  we  can  see  the  governor  of  Vir- 
ginia when  he  landed,  turning  out  his  entire  force 
in  most  formal  attire  and  with  full  company  of  forty 
halberdiers  in  scarlet  cloaks  to  attend  in  imposing 
procession  the  church  services  in  the  poor  little 
church  edifice  —  this  when  the  settlement  at  James- 
town was  scarce  more  than  an  encampment. 

We  can  read  the  words  of  Winthrop,  the  gov- 
ernor of  Massachusetts,  in  which  he  recounts  his 
mortification  at  the  undignified  condition  of  affairs 
when  the  governor  of  the  French  province,  the 
courtly  La  Tour,  landed  unexpectedly  in  Boston 
and  caught  the  governor  picnicking  peacefully  with 
his  family  on  an  island  in  the  harbor,  with  no  at- 
tendants, no  soldiers,  no  dignitaries.  Nor  was  there 
any  force  in  the  fort,  and  therefore  no  salute  could 
be  given  to  the  distinguished  visitors  ;  and  still  more 
mortifying  was  the  sole  announcement  of  this  im- 
portant arrival  through  the  hurried  sail  across  the 
bay,  and  the  running  to  the  governor  of  a  badly 
scared  woman  neighbor.  We  see  Winthrop  try- 
ing to  recover  his  dignity  in  La  Tour's  eyes  (and 
in  his  own)  by  bourgeoning  throughout  the  re- 
mainder   of   the    French    governor's    stay    with    an 


io  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

imposing  guard  of  soldiers  in  formal  attendance  at 
every  step  he  took  abroad;  ordering  them  to  wear, 
I  am  sure,  their  very  fullest  stuffed  doublets  and 
shiniest  armor,  while  he  displayed  his  best  black 
velvet  suit  of  garments.  Fortunately  for  New  Eng- 
land's appearance,  Winthrop  was  a  man  of  such 
aristocratic  bearing  and  feature  that  no  dress  or  lack 
of  dress  could  lower  his  dignity. 

Our  forbears  did  not  change  their  dress  by  emi- 
grating; they  may  have  worn  heavier  clothing  in 
New  England,  more  furs,  stronger  shoes,  but  I  can- 
not find  that  they  adopted  simpler  or  less  costly 
clothing;  any  change  that  may  have  been  made 
through  Puritan  belief  and  teaching  had  been  made 
in  England.     All  the  colonists 

".    .    .    studied  after  nyce  arrav, 
And  made  greet  cost  in  clothing." 

Many  persons  preferred  to  keep  their  property  in 
the  form  of  what  they  quaintly  called  "  duds."  The 
fashion  did  not  wear  out  more  apparel  than  the  man  ; 
for  clothing,  no  matter  what  its  cut,  was  worn  as 
long  as  it  lasted,  doing  service  frequently  through 
three  generations.  For  instance,  we  find  Mrs. 
Epes,  of  Ipswich,  Massachusetts,  when  she  was 
over  fifty  years  old,  receiving  this  bequest  by  will : 
"  If  she  desire  to  have  the  suit  of  damask  which  was 
the  Lady  Cheynies  her  grandmother,  let  her  have 
it  upon  appraisement."  I  have  traced  a  certain 
flowered  satin  gown  and  "  manto  "  in  four  wills  ;  a 
dame  to  her  daughter;  she  to  her  sister;  then  to 
the  child  of  the  last-named  who  was  a  granddaugh- 


Apparel  of  the  Puritan  and  Pilgrim  Fathers      11 


Governor  John  Winthrop. 


ter  of  the  first  owner.  And  it  was  a  proud  posses- 
sion to  the  last.  The  fashions  and  shapes  then  did 
not   change    yearly.      The  Boston  gentlewoman   of 


12  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

1660  would  not  have  been  ill  dressed  or  out  of  the 
mode  in  the  dress  worn  by  her  grandmother  when 
she  landed  in  1625. 

Petty  details  were  altered  in  woman's  dress  — 
though  but  slightly  ;  the  change  of  a  cap,  a  band,  a 
scarf,  a  ruffle,  meant  much  to  the  wearer,  though 
it  seems  unimportant  to  us  to-day.  Men's  dress, 
we  know  from  portraits,  was  unaltered  for  a  time 
save  in  neckwear  and  hair-dressing,  both  being  of 
such  importance  in  costume  that  they  must  be  writ- 
ten upon  at  length. 

Let  us  fix  in  our  minds  the  limit  of  reign  of  each 
ruler  during  the  early  years  of  colonization,  and 
the  dates  of  settlement  of  each  colony.  When 
Elizabeth  died  in  1603,  the  Brownist  Puritans  or 
Separatists  were  well  established  in  Holland  ;  they 
had  been  there  twenty  years.  They  were  dissatis- 
fied with  their  Dutch  home,  however,  and  had  had 
internal  quarrels  —  one,  of  petty  cause,  namely,  a 
"  topish  Hatt,"  a  "  Schowish  Hood,"  a  "garish 
spitz-fashioned  Stomacher,"  the  vain  garments  of 
one  woman  ;  but  the  strife  over  these  "  abhomina- 
tions  "  lasted  eleven  years. 

James  I  was  king  when  the  Pilgrims  came  to 
America  in  1620;  but  Charles  I  was  on  the  throne 
in  1630  when  John  Winthrop  arrived  with  his 
band  of  friends  and  followers  and  settled  in  Salem 
and  Boston. 

The  settlement  of  Portsmouth  and  Dover  in  New 
Hampshire  was  in  1623,  and  in  Maine  the  same 
year.  The  settlements  of  the  Dutch  in  New  Nether- 
land  were  in  1614;  while  Virginia,  named  for  Eliza- 


Apparel  of  the  Puritan  and  Pilgrim  Fathers      13 

beth,  the  Virgin  Queen,  and  discovered  in  her  day, 
was  settled  first  of  all  at  Jamestown  in  1607.  The 
Plymouth  colony  was  poor.  It  came  poor  from 
Holland,  and  grew  poorer  through  various  misfor- 
tunes and  set-backs  —  one  being  the  condition  of 
the  land  near  Plymouth.  The  Massachusetts  Bay 
Company  was  different.  It  came  with  properties 
estimated  to  be  worth  a  million  dollars,  and  it  had 
prospered  wonderfully  after  an  opening  year  of  want 
and  distress.  The  relative  social  condition  and 
means  of  the  settlers  of  Jamestown,  of  Plymouth, 
of  Boston,  were  carefully  investigated  from  English 
sources  by  a  thoughtful  and  fair  authority,  the  his- 
torian Green.  He  says  of  the  Boston  settlers  in  his 
Short  History  of  the  English  People :  — 

"  Those  Massachusetts  settlers  were  not  like  the  earlier 
colonists  of  the  South;  broken  men,  adventurers,  bank- 
rupts, criminals;  or  simply  poor  men  and  artisans  like  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers  of  the  Mayflower.  They  were  in  great 
part  men  of  the  professional  and  middle  classes  ;  some  of 
them  men  of  large  landed  estate,  some  zealous  clergymen, 
some  shrewd  London  lawyers  or  young  scholars  from 
Oxford.  The  bulk  were  God-fearing  farmers  from  Lin- 
colnshire and  the  Eastern   counties." 

A  full  comprehension  of  these  differences  in  the 
colonies  will  make  us  understand  certain  conditions, 
certain  surprises,  as  to  dress  ;  for  instance,  why  so 
little  of  the  extreme  Puritan  is  found  in  the  dress  of 
the  first  Boston  colonists. 

There  lived  in  England,  near  the  close  of  Eliza- 
beth's reign,  a   Puritan   named    Philip   Stubbes,   to 


14  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

whom  we  are  infinitely  indebted  for  our  knowledge 
of  English  dress  of  his  times.  It  was  also  the  dress 
of  the  colonists  ;  for  details  of  attire,  especially  of 
men's  wear,  had  not  changed  to  any  extent  since  the 
years  in  which  and  of  which  Philip  Stubbes  wrote. 

He  published  in  1586  a  book  called  An  Anatomie 
of Abuses ,  in  which  he  described  in  full  the  excesses 
of  England  in  his  day.  He  wrote  with  spirited, 
vivid  pen,  and  in  plain  speech,  leaving  nothing  un- 
spoken lest  it  offend,  and  he  used  strong,  racy  Eng- 
lish words  and  sentences.  In  his  later  editions  he 
even  took  pains  to  change  certain  "  strange,  inkhorn 
terms  "  or  complicate  words  of  his  first  writing  into 
simpler  ones.  Thus  he  changed preter  time  to  former 
ages  ;  auditory  to  bearers ;  prostrated  to  humbled ;  con- 
summate to  ended;  and  of  course  this  was  to  the 
book's  advantage.  Unusual  words  still  linger,  how- 
ever, but  we  must  believe  they  are  not  intentionally 
"  outlandish,"  as  was  the  term  of  the  day  for  such 
words. 

The  attitude  of  Stubbes  toward  dress  and  dress 
wearers  is  of  great  interest,  for  he  was  certainly  one 
of  the  most  severe,  most  determined,  most  conscien- 
tious of  Puritans  ;  yet  his  hatred  of  "  corruptions 
desiring  reformation  "  did  not  lead  him  to  a  hatred 
of  dress  in  itself.  He  is  careful  to  state  in  detail  in 
the  body  of  his  book  and  in  his  preface  that  his  at- 
tack is  not  upon  the  dress  of  people  of  wealth  and 
station  ;  that  he  approves  of  rich  dress  for  the  rich. 
His  hatred  is  for  the  pretentious  dress  of  the  many 
men  of  low  birth  or  of  mean  estate  who  lavish  their 
all  in  dress  ill  suited  to  their  station  :  and  also  his 


Apparel  of  the  Puritan  and  Pilgrim  Fathers      15 


Governor  Simon  Bradstreet. 

reproof  is  for  swindling  in  dress  materials  and  dress- 
making; against  false  weights  and  measures,  adul- 
terations and  profits  ;  in  short,  against  abuses,  not 
uses. 

His  words  run  thus  explicitly  :  — 

"  Whereas  I  have  spoken  of  the  excesse  in  apparell,  and 
of  the  Abuse  of  the  same  as  wel  in  Men  as  in  Women, 
generally  I  would  not  be  so  understood  as  though  my 
speaches  extended  to  any  either  noble  honorable  or  wor- 
shipful ;  for  I  am  farre  from  once  thinking  that  anv  kind  of 
sumptuous  or  gorgeous  Attire  is  not  to  be  worn  of  them  ; 
as  I  suppose  them  rather  Ornaments  in  them  than  other- 
wise.     And  therefore  when  I  speak  of  excesse  of  Apparel 


1 6  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

my  meaning  is  of  the  inferiour  sorte  only  who  for  the  most 
parte  do  farre  surpasse  either  noble  honorable  or  worship- 
ful, ruffling  in  Silks  Velvets,  Satens,  Damaske,  TafFeties, 
Gold  Silver  and  what  not ;  these  bee  the  Abuses  I  speak 
of,  these  bee  the  Evills  that  I  lament,  and  these  bee  the 
Persons   my   wordes   doe  concern." 

There  was  ample  room  for  reformation  from 
Stubbes's  point  of  view. 

"  There  is  such  a  confuse  mingle  mangle  of  apparell  and 
such  preponderous  excess  thereof,  as  every  one  is  permitted 
to  flaunt  it  out  in  what  apparell  he  has  himself  or  can  get 
by  anie  kind  of  means.  So  that  it  is  verie  hard  to  know 
who  is  noble,  who  is  worshipful,  who  is  a  gentleman,  who 
is  not ;  for  you  shall  have  those  who  are  neither  of  the 
nobilytie,  gentilitie,  nor  veomanrie  goe  daylie  in  silks  velvets 
satens  damasks  tafFeties  notwithstanding  they  be  base  by 
byrth,  meane  by  estate  and  servyle  by  calling.  This  a  great 
confusion,  a  general  disorder.      God  bee  mercyfull  unto  us." 

This  regard  of  dress  was,  I  take  it,  the  regard  of 
the  Puritan  reformer  in  general;  it  was  only  excess 
in  dress  that  was  hated.  This  was  certainly  the 
estimate  of  the  best  of  the  Puritans,  and  it  was  cer- 
tainly the  belief  of  the  New  England  Puritan.  It 
would  be  thought,  and  was  thought  by  some  men, 
that  in  the  New  World  liberty  of  religious  belief  and 
liberty  of  dress  would  be  given  to  all.  Not  at  all ! 
—  the  Puritan  magistrates  at  once  set  to  work  to 
show,  by  means  of  sumptuary  laws,  rules  of  town 
settlement,  and  laws  as  to  Sunday  observance  and 
religious  services,  that  nothing  of  the  kind  was  ex- 
pected or  intended,  or  would  be  permitted  willingly. 


Apparel  of  the  Puritan  and  Pilgrim  Fathers      17 

No  religious  sects  and  denominations  were  welcome 
save  the  Puritans  and  allied  forms  —  Brownists,  Pres- 
byterians, Congregationalists.  For  a  time  none  other 
were  permitted  to  hold  services  ;  no  one  could  wear 
rich  dress  save  gentlefolk,  and  folk  of  wealth  or 
some  distinction  —  as  Stubbes  said,  "by  being  in 
some  sort  of  office." 

We  shall  find  in  the  early  pages  of  this  book  fre- 
quent references  to  Stubbes's  descriptions  of  articles 
of  dress,  but  his  own  life  has  some  bearing  on  his 
utterances  ;  so  let  me  bear  testimony  as  to  his  char- 
acter and  to  the  absolute  truth  of  his  descriptions. 
He  was  held  up  in  his  own  day  to  contempt  by  that 
miserable  Thomas  Nashe  who  plagiarized  his  title 
and  helped  his  own  dull  book  into  popularity  by 
calling  it  The  Anatomie  of  Absurdities ;  and  who 
further  ran  on  against  him  in  a  still  duller  book,  An 
Aim  and  for  a  Parrat.  He  called  Stubbes  "A  Mar- 
Prelate  Zealot  and  Hypocrite,"  and  Stubbes  has 
been  held  up  by  others  as  a  morose  man  having  no 
family  ties  and  no  social  instincts.  He  was  in 
reality  the  tenderest  of  husbands  to  a  modest,  gentle, 
pious  girl  whom  he  married  when  she  was  but 
fourteen,  and  with  whom  he  lived  in  ideal  happiness 
until  her  death  in  child-birth  when  eighteen  years 
old.  He  bore  testimony  to  his  happiness  and  her 
goodness  in  a  loving  but  sad  and  trying  book  "  in- 
tituled" A  Christ.iall  Glasse  for  Christian  Women.  It 
is  a  record  of  a  life  which  was  indeed  pure  as  crystal ; 
a  life  so  retiring,  so  quiet,  so  composed,  so  unvary- 
ing, a  life  so  remote  from  any  gentlewoman's  life 
to-day  that  it  seems  of  another  ether,  another  planet, 


1 8  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

as  well  as  of  another  century.  But  it  is  useful  for 
us  to  know  it,  notwithstanding  its  background  of 
gloomy  religionism  and  its  air  of  unreality  ;  for  it 
helps  us  to  understand  the  character  of  Puritan 
women  and  of  Philip  Stubbes.  This  fair  young 
wife  died  in  an  ecstasy,  her  voice  triumphant,  her 
face  radiant  with  visions  of  another  and  a  glorious 
life.  And  yet  she  was  not  wholly  happy  in  death  ; 
for  she  had  a  Puritan  conscience,  and  she  thought 
she  must  have  offended  God  in  some  way.  She  had 
to  search  far  indeed  for  the  offence  ;  and  this  was  it  — 
it  would  be  absurd  if  it  were  not  so  true  and  so  deep 
in  its  sentiment  of  regret.  She  and  her  husband  had 
set  their  hearts  too  much  in  affection  upon  a  little 
dog  that  they  had  loved  well,  and  she  found  now 
that  "  it  was  a  vanitye  "  ;  and  she  repented  of  it,  and 
bade  them  bear  the  dog  from  her  bedside.  Knowing 
Stubbes's  love  for  this  little  dog  (and  knowing  it 
must  have  been  a  spaniel,  for  they  were  then  being 
well  known  and  beloved  and  were  called  "  Spaniel- 
gentles  or  comforters" — a  wonderfully  appropriate 
name),  I  do  not  much  mind  the  fierce  words  with 
which  he  stigmatizes  the  vanity  and  extravagance  of 
women.  I  have  a  strong  belief  too  that  if  we  knew 
the  dress  of  his  child-wife,  we  would  find  that  he 
liked  her  bravely  even  richly  attired,  and  that  he 
acquired  his  wonderful  mastery  of  every  term  and 
detail  of  women's  dress,  every  term  of  description, 
through  a  very  uxorious  regard  of  his  wife's 
apparel. 

Of  the  absolute  truth  of  every  word  in  Stubbes's 
accounts  we  have  ample   corroborative   proof.      He 


Sir  Richard  Saltonstall. 


Apparel  of  the  Puritan  and  Pilgrim  Fathers      19 

wrote  in  real  earnest,  in  true  zeal,  for  the  reform 
of  the  foolery  and  extravagance  he  saw  around  him, 
not  against  imaginary  evils.  There  is  ample  proof 
in  the  writings  of  his  contemporaries  —  in  Shake- 
spere's  comparisons,  in  Harrison's  sensible  Descrip- 
tion of  England,  in  Tom  Coryat's  Crudities  —  and 
oddities — of  the  existence  of  this  foolishness  and 
extravagance.  There  is  likewise  ample  proof  in  the 
sumptuary  laws  of  Elizabeth's  day. 

It  would  have  been  the  last  thing  the  solemn 
Stubbes  could  have  liked  or  have  imagined,  that  he 
should  have  afforded  important  help  to  future  writers 
upon  costume,  yet  such  is  the  case.  For  he  described 
the  dress  of  English  men  and  women  with  as  much 
precision  as  a  modern  reporter  of  the  modes.  No 
casual  survey  of  dress  could  have  furnished  to  him 
the  detail  of  his  description.  It  required  much  ex- 
amination and  inquiry,  especially  as  to  the  minutiae 
of  women's  dress.  Therefore  when  I  read  his  bitter 
pages  (if  I  can  forget  the  little  pet  spaniel)  I  have 
always  a  comic  picture  in  my  mind  of  a  sour,  morose, 
shocked  old  Puritan,  "  a  meer,  bitter,  narrow-sould 
Puritan,"  clad  in  cloak  and  doublet,  with  great  horn 
spectacles  on  nose,  and  ample  note-book,  penner,  and 
ink-horn  in  hand,  agonizingly  though  eagerly  sur- 
veying the  figure  of  one  of  his  fashion-clad  women 
neighbors,  walking  around  her  slowly,  asking  as 
he  walked  the  name  of  this  jupe,  the  price  of  that 
pinner,  the  stuff  of  this  sleeve,  the  cut  of  this  cap, 
groaning  as  he  wrote  it  all  down,  yet  never  turning 
to  squire  or  knight  till  every  detail  of  her  extrava- 
gance and  "greet  cost  "  is  recorded.      In  spite  of  all 


2o  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

his  moralizing  his  quill  pen  had  too  sharp  a  point, 
his  scowling  forehead  and  fierce  eyes  too  keen  a 
power  of  vision  ever  to  render  to  us  a  dull  page  ; 
even  the  author  of  Wimples  and  Crisping  Pins  might 
envy  his  powers  of  perception  and  description. 

The  bravery  of  the  Jacobean  gallant  did  not 
differ  in  the  main  from  his  dress  under  Elizabeth  ; 
but  in  details  he  found  some  extravagances.  The 
love-locks  became  more  prominent,  and  shoe-roses 
and  garters  both  grew  in  size.  Pomanders  were 
carried  by  men  and  women,  and  "  casting-bottles." 
Gloves  and  pockets  were  perfumed.  As  musk  was 
the  favorite  scent  this  perfume-wearing  is  not  over- 
alluring.  As  a  preventive  of  the  plague  all  per- 
fumes were  valued. 

Since  a  hatred  and  revolt  against  this  excess  was 
one  of  the  conditions  which  positively  led  to  the 
formation  of  the  Puritan  political  party  if  not  of 
the  Separatist  religious  faith,  and  as  a  consequence 
to  the  settlement  of  the  English  colonies  in  America, 
let  us  recount  the  conditions  of  dress  in  England 
when  America  was  settled.  Let  us  regard  first  the 
dress  of  a  courtier  whose  name  is  connected  closely 
and  warmly  in  history  and  romance  with  the  coloniza- 
tion of  America ;  a  man  who  was  hated  by  the  Pil- 
grim and  Puritan  fathers  but  whose  dress  in  some 
degree  and  likeness,  though  modified  and  simplified, 
must  have  been  worn  by  the  first  emigrants  to  Vir- 
ginia across  seas  —  let  us  look  at  the  portrait  of  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh.  He  was  a  hero  and  a  scholar,  but 
he  was  also  a  courtier;  and  of  a  court,  too,  where 
every  court-attendant  had  to  bethink  himself  much 


Apparel  of  the  Puritan  and  Pilgrim  Fathers     21 


and    ever   of  dress,  for   dress   occupied    vastly   the 
thought  and  almost  wholly  the  public  conversation 
of    his     queen 
and     her    suc- 
cessor. 

To  under- 
stand Raleigh's 
dress,  you  must 
know  the  man 
and  his  life  ;  to 
comprehend  its 
absurdities  and 
forgive  its  fol- 
lies and  see 
whence  it  origi- 
nated, youmust 
know  Elizabeth 
and  her  dress  ; 
you  must  see 
her  with  "  ob- 
long face,  eyes 
small, yetblack; 
her  nose  a  lit- 
tle hooked,  her 
lips  narrow,  her 
teeth     black; 


Sir  Walter  Raleigh. 


false  hair  and  that  red,"  —  these  are  the  striking  and 
plain  words  of  the  German  ambassador  to  her  court. 
You  must  look  at  this  queen  with  her  colorless  meagre 
person  lost  in  a  dress  monstrous  in  size,  yet  hung, 
even  in  its  enormous  expanse  of  many  square  yards, 
with   crowded    ornaments,   tags,  jewels,   laces,   em- 


ii  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

broideries,  gimp,  feathers,  knobs,  knots,  and  aglets, 
with  these  bedizened  rankly,  embellished  richly. 
You  must  see  her  talking  in  public  of  buskins  and 
gowns,  love-locks  and  virginals,  anything  but  matters 
of  seriousness  or  of  state  ;  you  must  note  her  at  a 
formal  ceremonial  tickling  handsome  Dudley  in  the 
neck ;  watch  her  dancing,  "  most  high  and  dispos- 
edly  "  when  in  great  age ;  you  must  see  her  giving 
Essex  a  hearty  boxing  of  the  ear  ;  hear  her  swearing 
at  her  ministers.  You  must  remember,  too,  her 
parents,  her  heritage.  From  King  Henry  VIII 
came  her  love  of  popularity,  her  great  activity,  her 
extraordinary  self-confidence,  her  indomitable  will, 
her  outbursts  of  anger,  her  cruelty,  just  as  came 
her  harsh,  mannish  voice.  From  her  mother,  Anne 
Boleyn,  came  her  sensuous  love  of  pleasure,  of  dress, 
of  flattery,  of  gayety  and  laughter.  Her  nature 
came  from  her  mother,  her  temper  from  her  father. 
The  familiarity  with  Robert  Dudley  was  but  a  piece 
with  her  boisterous  romps  in  her  girlhood,  and  her 
flap  in  the  face  of  young  Talbot  when  he  saw  her 
"unready  in  my  night-stuff."  But  she  had  more  in 
her  than  came  from  Henry  and  Anne  ;  she  had  her 
own  individuality,  which  made  her  as  hard  as  steel, 
made  her  resolute,  made  her  live  frugally  and  work 
hard,  and,  above  all,  made  her  know  her  limitations. 
The  woman,  be  she  queen  or  the  plainest  mortal, 
who  can  estimate  accurately  her  own  limitations, 
who  is  proof  against  enthusiasm,  proof  against  am- 
bition, and,  at  a  climax,  proof  against  flattery,  who 
knows  what  she  can  not  do,  in  that  very  thing  finds 
success.      Elizabeth  was  and  ever  will  be  a  wonder- 


Apparel  of  the  Puritan  and  Pilgrim  Fathers     23 

ful  character-study;  I  never  weary  of  reading  or 
thinking  of  her. 

The  settlement  of  Massachusetts  was  under  James 
I  ;  but  costume  varied  little,  save  that  it  became 
more  cumbersome.  This  may  be  attributed  directly 
to  the  cowardice  of  the  king,  who  wore  quilted  and 
padded  —  dagger-proof — clothing;  and  thus  gave 
to  his  courtiers  an  example  of  stuffing  and  padding 
which  exceeded  even  that  of  the  men  of  Elizabeth's 
day.  "A  great,  round,  abominable  breech,"  did 
the  satirists  call  it.  Stays  had  to  be  worn  beneath 
the  long-waisted,  peascod-bellied,  stuffed  doublet  to 
keep  it  in  shape ;  thus  a  man's  attire  had  scarcely  a 
single  natural  outline. 

We  have  this  description  of  Raleigh,  courtier  and 
"servant"  of  Elizabeth  and  victim  of  James,  given 
by  a  contemporary,  Aubrey  :  — 

"  He  looked  like  a  Knave  with  his  gogling  eyes.  He 
could  transform  himself  into  any  shape.  He  was  a  tall, 
handsome,  bold  man  ;  but  his  naeve  was  that  he  was  dam- 
nably proud.  A  good  piece  of  him  is  in  a  white  satin 
doublet  all  embroidered  with  rich  pearls,  and  a  mighty  rich 
chain  of  great  pearls  around  his  neck.  The  old  servants 
have  told  me  that  the  true  pearls  were  nigh  as  big  as  the 
painted  ones.  He  had  a  most  remarkable  aspect,  an  ex- 
ceeding high  forehead,  long  faced,  and  sour  eie-lidded,  a 
kind  of  pigge-eie." 

We  leave  the  choice  of  belief  between  one  sentence 
of  this  personal  description,  that  he  was  handsome, 
and  the  later  plain-spoken  details  to  the  judgment 
of  the  reader.      Certainly  both  statements  cannot  be 


24  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

true.     As  I  look  at  his  portrait,  the  "good  piece  of 
him"  on  page  2T,  I  wholly  disbelieve  the  former. 


Sir  Walter  Raleigh  and  Son. 

His  laced-in,  stiffened  waist,  his  absurd  breeches, 
his  ruffs  and  sashes  and  knots,  his  great  shoe-roses, 


Apparel  of  the  Puritan  and  Pilgrim  Fathers     25 

his  jewelled  hatband,  make  this  a  fantastic  picture, 
one  of  little  dignity,  though  of  vast  cost.  The 
jewels  on  his  shoes  were  said  to  have  cost  thirty 
thousand  pounds  ;  and  the  perfect  pearls  in  his  ear, 
as  seen  in  another  portrait,  must  have  been  an  inch 
and  a  half  long.  He  had  doublets  entirely  covered 
with  a  pattern  of  jewels.  In  another  portrait  (on 
the  opposite  page)  his  little  son,  poor  child,  stands 
by  his  side  in  similar  stiff  attire.  The  famous  por- 
trait of  Sir  Philip  Sidney  and  his  brother  is  equally 
comic  in  its  absurdity  of  costume  for  young  lads. 

Read  these  words  descriptive  of  another  courtier, 
of  the  reign  of  James  ;  his  favorite,  the  Duke  of 
Buckingham  :  — 

"  With  great  buttons  of  diamonds,  and  with  diamond  hat 
bands,  cockades  and  ear-rings,  yoked  with  great  and  mani- 
fold knots  of  pearls.  At  his  going  over  to  Paris  in  1625 
he  had  twenty-seven  suits  of  clothes  made  the  richest  that 
embroidery,  gems,  lace,  silk,  velvet,  gold  and  stones  could 
contribute ;  one  of  which  was  a  white  uncut  velvet  set  all 
over  suit  and  cloak  with  diamonds  valued  at  .£14,000  be- 
sides a  great  feather  stuck  all  over  with  diamonds,  as  were 
also  his  sword,  girdle,  hat-band  and  spurs." 

These  were  all  courtiers,  but  we  should  in  general 
think  of  an  English  merchant  as  dressed  richly  but 
plainly;  yet  here  is  the  dress  of  Marmaduke  Raw- 
don,  a  merchant  of  that  day  :  — 

"  The  apparell  he  rid  in,  with  his  chaine  of  gold  and  hat 
band  was  vallued  in  a  thousand  Spanish  ducats  ;  being  two 
hundred  and  seventy  and  five  pounds  sterling.  His  hat- 
band was  of  esmeralds   set  in  gold  ;   his  suite  was  of  a  fine 


26  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

cloth  trim'd  with  a  small  silke  and  gold  fringe  ;  the  buttons 
of  his  suite  fine  gold  —  goldsmith's  work;  his  rapier  and 
dagger  richly  hatcht  with  gold." 

The  white  velvet  dress  of  Buckingham  showed 
one  of  the  extreme  fashions  of  the  day,  the  wearing 
of  pure  white.  Horace  Walpole  had  a  full-length 
painting  of  Lord  Falkland  all  in  white  save  his  black 
gloves.  Another  of  Sir  Godfrey  Hart,  1600,  is  all 
in  white  save  scarlet  heels  to  the  shoes.  These 
scarlet  heels  were  worn  long  in  every  court.  Who 
will  ever  forget  their  clatter  in  the  pages  of  Saint 
Simon,  as  they  ran  in  frantic  haste  through  hall  and 
corridor  —  in  terror,  in  cupidity,  in  satisfaction,  in 
zeal  to  curry  favor,  in  desire  to  herald  the  news,  in 
hope  to  obtain  office,  in  every  mean  and  detestable 
spirit  — ran  from  the  bedside  of  the  dying  king? 
We  can  still  hear,  after  two  centuries,  the  noisy, 
heartless  tapping  of  those  hurrying  red  heels. 

Look  at  the  portrait  of  another  courtier,  Sir 
Robert  Dudley,  who  died  in  1639;  not  the  Robert 
Dudley  who  was  tickled  in  the  neck  by  Queen 
Elizabeth  while  he  was  being  dubbed  earl ;  not  the 
Dudley  who  murdered  Amy  Robsart,  but  his  dis- 
owned son  by  a  noble  lady  whom  he  secretly  mar- 
ried and  dishonored.  This  son  was  a  brave  sailor 
and  a  learned  man.  He  wrote  the  Arcana  del  Mare, 
and  he  was  a  sportsman  ;  "  the  first  of  all  that  taught 
a  dog  to  sit  in  order  to  catch  partridges."  His 
portrait  shows  clumsy  armor  and  showy  rings,  a 
great  jewel  and  a  vast  tie  of  gauze  ribbon  on  one 
arm  ;    on   the    other   a   cord   with    many   aglets ;    he 


Egbert  Deverevx  earle  ofessex  His  excel 

lency  ffc  Gene  rail  of  ye  Army 


FubApnl  om  byWcharurdfon  Y.r  kKou.fi,  N'2,  tfraruL 


Apparei  of  the  Puritan  and  Pilgrim  Fathers      2J 

wears  marvellously  embroidered,  slashed,  and  bom- 
basted  breeches,  tight  hose,  a  heavily  jewelled,  broad 
belt ;  and  a  richly  fringed  scarf  over  one  shoulder, 
and  ridiculous  garters  at  his  calf.  It  is  so  absurd, 
so  vain  a  dress  one  cannot  wonder  that  sensible 
gentlemen  turned  away  in  disgust  to  so-called  Puri- 
tan plainness,  even  if  it  went  to  the  extreme  of 
Puritan  ugliness. 

But  in  truth  the  eccentrics  and  extremes  of  Puri- 
tan dress  were  adopted  by  zealots  ;  the  best  of  that 
dress  only  was  worn  by  the  best  men  of  the  party. 
All  Puritans  were  not  like  Philip  Stubbes,  the 
moralist ;  nor  did  all  Royalists  dress  like  Bucking- 
ham, the  courtier. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  influence  of  the  word  "sad- 
color."  I  believe  that  our  notion  of  the  gloom  of 
Puritan  dress,  of  the  dress  certainly  of  the  New 
England  colonist,  comes  to  us  through  it,  for  the 
term  was  certainly  much  used.  A  Puritan  lover 
in  Dorchester,  Massachusetts,  in  1645,  wrote  to  his 
lass  that  he  had  chosen  for  her  a  sad-colored  gown. 
Winthrop  wrote,  "  Bring  the  coarsest  woolen  cloth, 
so  it  be  not  flocks,  and  of  sad  colours  and  some 
red  ;  "  and  he  ordered  a  "  grave  gown  "■  for  his  wife, 
"  not  black,  but  sad-colour."  But  while  sad-colored 
meant  a  quiet  tint,  it  did  not  mean  either  a  dull 
stone  color  or  a  dingy  grayish  brown  —  nor  even 
a  dark  brown.  We  read  distinctly  in  an  English 
list  of  dyes  of  the  year  1638  of  these  tints  in  these 
words,  "  Sadd-colours  the  following ;  liver  colour, 
De  Boys,  tawney,  russet,  purple,  French  green, 
ginger-lyne,    deere     colour,    orange     colour."       Of 


28  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

these  nine  tints,  five,  namely,  "  De  Boys,"  tawny, 
russet,  ginger-lyne,  and  deer  color,  were  all 
browns.  Other  colors  in  this  list  of  dyes  were 
called  "  light  colours  "  and  "  graine  colours."  Light 
colors  were  named  plainly  as  those  which  are  now 
termed  by  shopmen  "  evening  shades "  ;  that  is, 
pale  blue,  pink,  lemon,  sulphur,  lavender,  pale 
green,  ecru,  and  cream  color.  Grain  colors  were 
shades  of  scarlet,  and  were  worn  as  much  as  russet. 
When  dress  in  sad  colors  ranged  from  purple  and 
French  green  through  the  various  tints  of  brown  to 
orange,  it  was  certainly  not  a  ^//-colored  dress. 

Let  us  see  precisely  what  were  the  colors  of  the 
apparel  of  the  first  colonists.  Let  us  read  the  de- 
tails of  russet  and  scarlet.  We  find  them  in  The 
Record  of  the  Governor  and  Company  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  in  New  England,  one  of  the  incontro- 
vertible sources  which  are  a  delight  to  every  true 
historian.  These  records  are  in  the  handwriting  of 
the  first  secretary,  Washburn,  and  contain  lists  of 
the  articles  sent  on  the  ships  Talbot,  George,  Lion  s 
Whelp,  Four  Sisters,  and  Mayflower  for  the  use  of 
the  plantation  at  Naumkeag  (Salem)  and  later  at 
Boston.  They  give  the  amount  of  iron,  coal,  and 
bricks  sent  as  ballast ;  the  red  lead,  sail-cloth,  and 
copper;  and  in  1629,  at  some  month  and  day  pre- 
vious to  1 6th  of  March,  give  the  order  for  the 
"  Apparell  for  100  men."  We  learn  that  each 
colonist  had  this  attire  :  — 
"  4  Pair  Shoes. 

2  Pair  Irish  Stockings  about  iy/.  a  pair. 

I  Pair  knit  Stockings  about  is.  \d.  a  pair. 


Apparel  of  the  Puritan  and  Pilgrim  Fathers     29 

1  Pair  Norwich  Garters  about  5*.  a  dozen. 
4  Shirts. 

2  Suits  of  Doublet  and   Hose ;   of  leather  lined  with  oiled 

skin  leather,  the  hose  and  doublet  with  hooks  and 
eyes. 

1  Suit  of  Northern   Dussens   or   Hampshire  Kerseys  lined, 

the  hose  with  skins  5  the  doublet  with  linen  of  Guild- 
ford or  Gedleyman  serges,  2s.  lod.  a  yard,  4I  to  5 
yards  a  suit. 

4  Bands. 

2  Plain  falling  bands. 
1  Standing  band. 

1  Waistcoat  of  green  cotton  bound  about  with  red  tape. 

1  Leather  Girdle. 

2  Monmouth  Cap,  about  is.  apiece. 

1  Black  Hat  lined  at  the  brim  with  leather. 

5  Red  knit  caps  milled  ;   about  5^.  apiece. 

2  Dozen    Hooks  and   eyes  and  small  hooks   and  eves   for 

mandillions. 
1  Pair  Calfs  Leather  gloves    (and   some  odd   pairs  of  knit 

and  sheeps  leather  gloves). 
A  number  of  Ells  Sheer  Linen  for  Handkerchiefs." 

On  March  16th  was  added  to  this  list  a  man- 
dillion  lined  with  cotton  at  lid.  a  yard.  Also 
breeches  and  waistcoats  ;  a  leather  suit  of  doublet 
and  breeches  of  oiled  leather;  a  pair  of  breeches  of 
leather,  "the  drawers  to  serve  to  wear  with  both 
their  other  suits."  There  was  also  full,  yes,  gener- 
ous for  the  day,  provision  of  rugs,  bedticks,  bol- 
sters, mats,  blankets,  and  sheets  for  the  berths,  and 
table  linen.  There  were  fifty  beds  ;  evidently  two 
men  occupied  each  bed.  Folk,  even  of  wealth  and 
refinement,  were  not  at  all  sensitive  as  to  their  mode 


30  Two   Centuries  of  Costume 

of  sleeping  or  their  bedfellows.  The  pages  of 
Pepys's  Diary  give  ample  examples  of  this  careless- 
ness. 

Arms  and  armor  were  also  furnished,  as  will  be 
explained  in  a  later  chapter. 

A  private  letter  written  by  an  engineer,  one  Mas- 
ter Graves,  the  following  year  (1630),  giving  a  list 
of  "  such  needful  things  as  every  planter  ought  to 
provide,"  affords  a  more  curt  and  much  less  ex- 
pensive list,  though  this  has  three  full  suits,  two 
being  of  wool  stuffs  :  — 


I 

Monmouth  Cap. 

1    Suit  of  Cloth. 

3 

Falling  Bands. 

3    Pair  of  Stockings. 

3 

Shirts. 

4   Pair  of  Shoes. 

Waistcoat. 

Armour  complete. 

1 

Suit  Canvass. 

Sword  &  Belt." 

1 

Suit  Frieze. 

The  underclothing  in  this  outfit  seems  very 
scanty. 

I  am  sure  that  to  some  of  the  emigrants  on  these 
ships  either  outfit  afforded  an  ampler  wardrobe  than 
they  had  known  theretofore  in  England,  though 
English  folk  of  that  day  were  well  dressed.  With  a 
little  consideration  we  can  see  that  the  Massachu- 
setts Bay  apparel  was  adequate  for  all  occasions, 
but  it  was  far  different  from  a  man's  dress  to-day. 
The  colonist  "  hadn't  a  coat  to  his  back  "  ;  nor 
had  he  a  pair  of  trousers.  Some  had  not  even  a 
pair  of  breeches.  It  was  a  time  when  great  changes 
in  dress  were  taking  place.  The  ancient  gown 
had   just    been    abandoned    for    doublet    and    long 


Apparel  of  the  Puritan  and  Pilgrim  Fathers     3  1 

hose,  which  were  still  in  high  esteem,  especially 
among  "  the  elder  sort,"  with  garters  or  points  for  the 
knees.  These  doublets  were  both  of  leather  and 
wool.  And  there  were  also  doublets  to  be  worn  by 
younger  men  with  breeches  and  stockings. 

When  doublet  and  hose  were  worn,  the  latter  were, 
of  course,  the  long,  Florentine  hose,  somewhat  like 
our  modern  tights. 

The  jerkin  of  other  lists  varied  little  from  the 
doublet ;  both  were  often  sleeveless,  and  the  cassock 
in  turn  was  different  only  in  being  longer;  buff- 
coat  and  horseman's  coat  were  slightly  changed. 
The  evolution  of  doublet,  jerkin,  and  cassock  into  a 
man's  coat  is  a  long  enough  story  for  a  special  chap- 
ter, and  one  which  took  place  just  while  America 
was  being  settled.  Let  me  explain  here  that,  while 
the  general  arrangement  of  this  book  is  naturally 
chronological,  we  halt  upon  our  progress  at  times,  to 
review  a  certain  aspect  of  dress,  as,  for  instance,  the 
riding-dress  of  women,  or  the  dress  of  the  Quakers, 
or  to  review  the  description  of  certain  details  of 
dress  in  a  consecutive  account.  We  thus  run  on 
ahead  of  our  story  sometimes ;  and  other  times, 
topics  have  to  be  resumed  and  reviewed  near  the 
close  of  the  book. 

The  breeches  worn  by  the  early  planters  were 
fulled  at  the  waist  and  knee,  after  the  Dutch  fash- 
ion, somewhat  like  our  modern  knickerbockers  or 
the  English  bag-breeches. 

The  four  pairs  of  shoes  furnished  to  the  colonists 
were  the  best.  In  another  entry  the  specifications 
of  their  make  are  given  thus  :  — 


32  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

u  Welt  Neats  Leather  shoes  crossed  on  the  out-side  with 
a  seam.  To  be  substantial  good  over-leather  of  the  best, 
and  two  soles  ;  the  under  sole  of  Neats-leather,  the  outer 
sole  of  tallowed  backs." 

They  were  to  be  of  ample  size,  some  thirteen 
inches  long;  each  reference  to  them  insisted  upon 
good  quality. 

There  is  plentiful  head-gear  named  in  these  in- 
ventories,—  six  caps  and  a  hat  for  each  man,  at  a 
time  when  Englishmen  thought  much  and  deeply 
upon  what  they  wore  to  cover  their  heads,  and  at 
a  time  when  hats  were  very  costly.  I  give  due 
honor  to  those  hats  in  an  entire  chapter,  as  I  do  to 
the  ruffs  and  bands  supplied  in  such  adequate  and 
dignified  numbers.  There  was  an  unusually  lib- 
eral supply  of  shirts,  and  there  were  drawers  which 
are  believed  to  have  been  draw-strings  for  the 
breeches. 

In  New  England's  First  Fruits  we  read  instruc- 
tions to  bring  over  "good  Irish  stockings,  which  if 
they  are  good  are  much  more  serviceable  than  knit 
ones."  There  appears  to  have  been  much  variety 
in  shape  as  well  as  in  material.  John  Usher,  writ- 
ing in  1675  to  England,  says,  "your  sherrups  stock- 
ings and  your  turn  down  stocking  are  not  salable 
here."  Nevertheless,  stirrup  stockings  and  socks 
were  advertised  in  the  Boston  News  Letter  as  late  as 
January  30,  1 73  1 .  Stirrup-hose  are  described  in 
1658  as  being  very  wide  at  the  top  —  two  yards 
wide  —  and  edged  with  points  or  eyelet  holes  by 
which  they  were  made  fast  to  the  girdle  or  bag- 
breeches.      Sometimes    they    were    allowed    to    bag 


Apparel  of  the  Puritan  and  Pilgrim  Fathers     23 

down  over  the  garter.  They  are  said  to  have  been 
worn  on  horseback  to  protect  the  other  garments. 

Stockings  at  that  time  were  made  of  cotton  and 
woollen  cloth  more  than  they  were  knitted.  Calico 
stockings  are  found  in  inventories,  and  often  stock- 
ings as  well  as  hose  with  calico  linings.  In  the 
clothing  of  William  Wright  of  Plymouth,  at  his 
death  in  1633,  were 

"  2  Pair  Old  Knit  Stockins. 
2  Pair  Old  Yrish  Stockins. 
2  Pair  Cloth  Stockins. 
2  Pair  Wadmoll  Stockins. 
4  Pair  Linnen  Stockins," 

which  would  indicate  that  Goodman  Wright  had 
stockings  for  all  weathers,  or,  as  said  a  list  of  that 
day,  "  of  all  denominations."  He  had  also  two 
pair  of  boot-hose  and  two  pair  of  boot-briches  ;  evi- 
dently he  was  a  seafaring  man.  I  must  note  that  he 
had  more  ample  underclothing  than  many  "  plain 
citizens,"  having  cotton  drawers  and  linen  drawers 
and  dimity  waistcoats. 

That  petty  details  of  propriety  and  dignity  of 
dress  were  not  forgotten  ;  that  the  articles  serving 
to  such  dignity  were  furnished  to  the  colonists,  and 
the  use  of  these  articles  was  expected  of  them,  is 
shown  by  the  supply  of  such  additions  to  dress  as 
Norwich  garters.  Garters  had  been  a  decorative 
and  elegant  ornament  to  dress,  as  may  be  seen  by 
glancing  at  the  portraits  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  Sir 
Robert  Orchard,  and  the  English  Antick,  in  this 
book.     And  they  might  well  have  been  decried  as 

VOL.  I  —  D 


w 
su 
are 


o4  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

offensive  luxuries  unmeet  for  any  Puritan  and  un- 
necessary for  any  colonist;  yet  here  they  are.  The 
settlers-  in  one  of  the  closely  following  ships  had 
points  for  the  knee  as  well  as  garters. 

From  all  this  cheerful  and  ample  dress,  this  might 
ell  be  a  Cavalier  emigration  ;  in  truth,  the  apparel 
pplied  as  an  outfit  to  the  Virginia  planters  (who 
aie  generally  supposed  to  be  far  more  given  over  to 
rich  dress)  is  not  as  full  nor  as  costly  as  this  apparel 
of  Massachusetts  Bay.  In  this  as  in  every  compari- 
son I  make,  I  find  little  to  indicate  any  difference 
between  Puritan  and  Cavalier  in  quantity  of  gar- 
ments, in  quality,  or  cost  — or,  indeed,  in  form. 
The  differences  in  England  were  much  exaggerated 
in  print ;  in  America  they  often  existed  wholly  in 
men's  notions  of  what  a  Puritan  must  be. 

At  first  the  English  Puritan  reformers  made 
marked  alterations  in  dress  ;  and  there  were  also 
distinct  changes  in  the  soldiers  of  Cromwell's  army, 
but  in  neither  case  did  rigid  reforms  prove  per- 
manent, nor  were  they  ever  as  great  or  as  sweeping 
as  the  changes  which  came  to  the  Cavalier  dress. 
Many  of  the  extremes  preached  in  Elizabeth's  day 
had  disappeared  before  New  England  was  settled ; 
they  had  been  abandoned  as  unwise  or  unnecessary  ; 
others  had  been  adopted  by  Cavaliers,  so  that  equal- 
ized all  differences.  I  find  it  difficult  to  pick  out 
with  accuracy  Puritan  or  Cavalier  in  any  picture  of 
a  large  gathering.  Let  us  glance  at  the  Puritan 
Roundhead,  at  Cromwell  himself.  His  picture_  is 
given  on  the  following  page,  cut  from  a  famous  print 
of  his   day,  which    represents  Cromwell   dissolving 


Apparel  of  the  Puritan  and  Pilgrim  Fathers     3$ 

the  Long  Parliament.  He  and  his  three  friends,  all 
Puritan  leaders,  are  dressed  in  clothes  as  distinctly 
Cavalier  as  the  attire  of  the  king  himself.  The  grace- 
ful hats  with  sweeping  ostrich  feathers  are  precisely 
like  the  Cavalier  hats  still  preserved  in  England  ;  like 
one  in  the  South  Kensington  Museum.  Cromwell's 
wide  boots  and  his  short  cape  all  have  a  Cavalier  aspect. 


Cromwell  dissolving  Parliament. 

While  Cromwell  was  steadily  working  for  power, 
the  fashion  of  plain  attire  was  being  more  talked 
about  than  at  any  other  time ;  so  he  appeared  in 
studiously  simple  dress  —  the  plainest  apparel,  in- 
deed, of  any  man  prominent  in  affairs  in  Eng- 
lish history.  This  is  a  description  of  his  appearance 
at  a  time  before  his  name  was  in  all  Englishmen's 
mouths.      It  was  written  by  Sir  Philip  Warwick  :  — 


36  Two   Centuries   of  Costume 

"  The  first  time  I  ever  took  notice  of  him  (Cromwell) 
was  in  the  beginning  of  Parliament,  November,  1640.  I 
came  into  the  house  one  morning,  well-clad,  and  perceived 
a  gentleman  speaking  whom  I  knew  not,  very  ordinary 
apparelled,  for  it  was  a  plain  cloth  suit  which  seemed  to 
have  been  made  by  an  ill  country  tailor.  His  linen  was 
plain  and  not  very  clean,  and  I  remember  a  speck  or  two 
of  blood  upon  his  band  which  was  not  much  larger  than 
his  collar ;  his  hat  was  without  a  hat-band  ;  his  stature  was 
of  good  size  ;   his  sword  stuck  close  to  his  side." 

Lowell  has  written  of  what  he  terms  verbal  magic; 
the  power  of  certain  words  and  sentences,  apparently 
simple,  and  without  any  recognizable  quality,  which 
will,  nevertheless,  fix  themselves  in  our  memory,  or 
will  picture  a  scene  to  us  which  we  can  never  forget. 
This  description  of  Cromwell  has  this  magic.  There 
is  no  apparent  reason  why  these  plain,  commonplace 
words  should  fix  in  my  mind  this  simple,  rough- 
hewn  form  ;  yet  I  never  can  think  of  Cromwell 
otherwise  than  in  this  attire,  and  whatever  portrait 
I  see  of  him,  I  instinctively  look  for  the  spot  of 
blood  on  his  band.  I  know  of  his  rich  dress  after 
he  was  in  power;  of  that  splendid  purple  velvet  suit 
in  which  he  lay  majestic  in  death  ;  but  they  never 
seem  to  me  to  be  Cromwell  —  he  wears  forever  an 
ill-cut,  clumsy  cloth  suit,  a  close  sword,  and  rumpled 
linen. 

The  noble  portraits  of  Cromwell  by  the  miniatur- 
ist, Samuel  Cooper,  especially  the  one  which  is  at 
Sidney  Sussex  College,  Cambridge,  are  held  to  be 
the  truest  likenesses.  They  show  a  narrow  band, 
but    the   hair   curls    softly   on   the   shoulders.      The 


Apparel  of  the  Puritan  and  Pilgrim  Fathers 


37 


wonderful  portrait  of  the  Puritan  General  Ireton,  in 
the  National  Portrait  Gallery,  has  beautiful,  long 
hair,  and  a  velvet  suit  much  slashed,  and  with  many 
loops  and  buttons  at  the  slashes.  He  wears  mus- 
tache and  imperial.  We  expect  we  may  find  that 
friend  of  Puritanism,  Lucius  Carey,  Lord  Falkland, 
in  rich  dress  ;  and  we  find  him  in  the  richest  of 
dress ;  namely,  a  doublet  made,  as  to  its  bodv  and 
large  full  sleeves, 
wholly  of  bands  an 
inch  or  two  wide  of 
embroidery  and  gold 
lace,  opening  like  long 
slashes  from  throat 
to  waist,  and  from 
arm-scye  to  wrist  over 
fine  white  lawn,  and 
with  extra  slashes  at 
various  spots,  with  the 
full  white  lawn  of  his 
"  habit-shirt"  pulled 
out  in  pretty  puffs. 
His  hair  is  long  and 
curling.  General  Waller  of  Cromwell's  army,  here 
shown,  is  the  very  figure  of  a  Cavalier,  as  hand- 
some a  face,  with  as  flowing  hair  and  careful  mus- 
tache,   as     the     Duke     of     Buckingham,     or     Mr. 

Endymion    Porter,  —  that  courtier  of   courtiers, 

gentleman  of  the  bed-chamber  to  Charles  I.  Cor- 
net Joyce,  the  sturdy  personal  custodian  of  the 
king  in  captivity,  came  the  closest  to  being  a 
Roundhead  ;  but  even  his   hair  covers  his   ear  and 


Sir  William  Waller 


38  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

hangs  over  his  collar  —  it  would  be  deemed  over- 
long  to-day. 

Here  is  Lord  Fairfax  in  plain  buff  coat  slightly 
laced  and  slashed  with  white  satin.  Fanshawe 
dressed  —  so  his  wife  tells  us  —  in  "  phillamot  bro- 
cade with  9  Laces  every  one  as  broad  as  my  hand, 
a  little  gold  and  silver  lace  between  and  both  of 
curious  workmanship."  And  his  suit  was  gay  with 
scarlet  knots  of  ribbon  ;  and  his  legs  were  cased  in 
white  silk  hose  over  scarlet  ones  ;  and  he  wore  black 
shoes  with  scarlet  shoe  strings  and  scarlet  roses  and 
garters  ;  and  his  gloves  were  trimmed  with  scarlet 
ribbon  —  a  fine  "  gaybeseen  "  —  to  use  Chaucer's 
words. 

Surprising  to  all  must  be  the  portrait  of  that 
Puritan  figurehead,  the  Earl  of  Leicester ;  for  he 
wears  an  affected  double-peaked  beard,  a  great  ruff, 
feathered  hat,  richly  jewelled  hatband  and  collar, 
and  an  ear-ring.  Facing  page  26  is  the  dress  he 
wore  when  masquerading  in  Holland  as  general  dur- 
ing the  Netherland  insurrection  against  Philip  II. 

It  is  strange  to  find  even  writers  of  intelligence 
calling  Winthrop  and  Endicott  Roundheads.  A 
recent  magazine  article  calls  Myles  Standish  a 
Roundhead  captain.  That  term  was  not  invented 
till  a  score  of  years  after  Myles  Standish  landed 
at  Plymouth.  A  political  song  printed  in  1641 
is  entitled  The  Character  of  a  Roundhead.  It  be- 
gins :  — 

"  What  creature's  this  with  his  short  hairs 
His  little  band  and  huge  long  ears 

That  this  new  faith  hath  founded  ? 


~/ ke    ritiht  Uucfiourable     _J" crdinant 
—IjTrd-        Fairfax. 


Apparel  of  the  Puritan  and  Pilgrim  Fathers     39 

The  Puritans  were  never  such, 
The  saints  themselves  had  ne'er  as  much. 
Oh,  such  a  knave's  a  Roundhead." 

Mrs.  Lucy  Hutchinson  was  the  wife  of  a  Puritan 
gentleman,  who  was  colonel  in  Cromwell's  army, 
and  one  of  the  regicide  judges.  She  wrote  a  history 
of  her  husband's  life,  which  is  one  of  the  most  valu- 
able sources  of  information  of  the  period  wherein  he 
lived,  the  day  when  Cromwell  and  Hampden  acted, 
when  Laud  and  Strafford  suffered.  In  this  history 
she  tells  explicitly  of  the  early  use  of  the  word 
Roundhead : — 

"  The  name  of  Roundhead  coming  so  opportunely,  I 
shall  make  a  little  digression  to  show  how  it  came  up  : 
When  Puritanism  grew  a  faction,  the  Zealots  distinguished 
themselves  by  several  affectations  of  habit,  looks  and  words, 
which  had  it  been  a  real  forsaking  of  vanity  would  have 
been  most  commendable.  Among  other  affected  habits, 
few  of  the  Puritans,  what  degree  soever  they  were,  wore 
their  hair  long  enough  to  cover  their  ears  ;  and  the  minis- 
ters and  many  others  cut  it  close  around  their  heads  with 
so  many  little  peaks  —  as  was  something  ridiculous  to 
behold.  From  this  custom  that  name  of  Roundhead  be- 
came the  scornful  term  given  to  the  whole  Parliament 
Party,  whose  army  indeed  marched  out  as  if  they  had  only 
been  sent  out  till  their  hair  was  grown.  Two  or  three 
years  later  any  stranger  that  had  seen  them  would  have 
inquired  the  meaning  of  that  name." 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  point  out  Colonel  Hutchinson 
as  a  Puritan,  though  there  was  little  in  his  dress  to 
indicate  the  significance  of  such  a  name  for  him,  and 
certainlv  he  was  not  a  Roundhead,  with    his  light 


4-0  Two   Centuries  of  Costume 

brown  hair  "  softer  than  the  finest  silk  and  curling 
in  great  loose  rings  at  the  ends  —  a  very  fine,  thick- 
set head  of  hair."  He  loved  dancing,  fencing, 
shooting,  and  hawking ;  he  was  a  charming  musi- 
cian;  he  had  judgment  in  painting,  sculpture,  archi- 
tecture, and  the  "  liberal  arts."  He  delighted  in 
books  and  in  gardening  and  in  all  rarities ;  in 
fact,  he  seemed  to  care  for  everything  that  was 
"  lovely  and  of  good  report."  "  He  was  wonder- 
fully neat,  cleanly  and  genteel  in  his  habit,  and  had 
a  very  good  fancy  in  it,  but  he  left  off  very  early 
the  wearing  of  anything  very  costly,  yet  in  his  plain- 
est habit  appeared  very  much  a  gentleman."  Such 
dress  was  the  best  of  Puritan  dress  ;  just  as  he  was 
the  best  type  of  a  Puritan.  He  was  cheerful,  witty, 
happy,  eager,  earnest,  vivacious  —  a  bit  quick  in 
temper,  but  kind,  generous,  and  good.  He  was,  in 
truth,  what  is  best  of  all,  —  a  noble,  consistent, 
Christian  gentleman. 

Those  who  have  not  acquired  from  accurate 
modern  portrayal  and  representation  their  whole 
notion  of  the  dress  of  the  early  colonists  have,  I 
find,  a  figure  in  their  mind's  eye  something  like 
that  of  Matthew  Hopkins  the  witch-finder.  Ho- 
garth's illustrations  of  Hudibras  give  similar  Puri- 
tans. Others  have  figures,  dull  and  plainly  dressed, 
from  the  pictures  in  some  book  of  saints  and 
martyrs  of  the  Puritan  church,  such  as  were  found 
in  many  an  old  New  England  home.  My  Puritan 
is  reproduced  on  page  41.  I  have  found  in  later 
years  that  this  Alderman  Abel  of  my  old  print 
was    quite    a  character    in   English   history  ;    having 


Apparel  of  the  Puritan  and  Pilgrim  Fathers     41 

been  given  with  Cousin  Kilvert  the  monopoly  of 
the  sale  of  wines  at  retail,  one  of  those  vastly  lucra- 
tive privileges  which  brought  forth  the  bitterest  de- 
nunciations from  Sir  John  Eliot,  who  regarded  them 


11       fl 

s|AHff 

jjMlp 

-          Jm&-%k 

1  a  w'jjpsa. 

(fc^P^ite 

• -—   M- 

mir      "^jp 

Me  £wc>  maine  Jro/ecfors  fir  IVme  ■  /G4f. 

as  an  infamous  imposition  upon  the  English  people. 
The  site  of  Abel's  house  had  once  belonged  to 
Cardinal  Wolsey ;  and  it  was  popularly  believed 
that  Abel  found  and  used  treasure  of  the  cardinal 
which  had  been  hidden  in  his  cellar.  He  was  called 
the  "  Main  Projector  and  Patentee  for  the  Raising 
of  Wines."  Unfortunately  for  my  theory  that 
Abel  was  a  typical  Puritan,  he  was  under  the  pro- 
tection of  King  Charles  I  ;  and  Cromwell's  Parlia- 
ment put  an  end  to  his  monopoly  in  1641,  and 
his  dress  was  simply  that  of  any  dull,  uninterest- 
ing, commonplace,  and  common  Englishman  of  his 
day. 


42  Two   Centuries  of  Costume 

Another  New  England  man  who  is  constantly 
called  a  Roundhead  is  Cotton  Mather;  with  equal 
inconsequence  and  inaccuracy  he  is  often  referred 
to,  and  often  stigmatized,  as  "  the  typical  Puritan 
colonist,"  a  narrow,  bigoted  Gospeller.  I  have  open 
before  me  an  editorial  from  a  reputable  newspaper 
which  speaks  of  Cotton  Mather  dressed  in  dingy, 
skimped,  sad-colored  garments  "  shivering  in  the 
icy  air  of  Plymouth  as  he  uncovered  his  close- 
clipped  Round-head  when  he  landed  on  the]  Rock 
from  the  Mayflower."  He  was  in  fact  born  in 
America;  he  was  not  a  Plymouth  man,  and  did  not 
die  till  more  than  a  century  after  the  landing  of  the 
Mayflower )  and,  of  course,  he  was  not  a  Round- 
head. Another  drawing  of  Cotton  Mather,  in  a 
respectable  magazine,  depicts 
him  with  clipped  hair,  emaci- 
ated, clad  in  clumsy  garments, 
mean  and  haggard  in  counte- 
nance, raising  a  bundle  of  rods 
over  a  cowering  Indian  child. 
Now,  Cotton  Mather  was  dis- 
tinctly handsome,  as  may  be 
seen  from  his  picture  facing  this 
□  .   T  .     n  '  page,    which    displays    plainly 

Reverend  John  Cotton.         r    5    >  r     J        r  / 

the  full,  sensual  features  of  the 
Cotton  family,  shown  in  John  Cotton's  portrait. 
And  the  Roundhead  is  in  an  elegant,  richly  curled 
periwig,  such  as  was  fashionable  a  hundred  years 
after  the  Mayflower.  And  though  he  had  the  tor- 
menting Puritan  conscience  he  was  not  wholly  a 
Puritan,  for  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil  were 


Reverend  Cotton   Mather. 


Apparel  of  the  Puritan  and  Pilgrim  Fathers     43 

strong  in  him.  He  was  much  more  gentle  and 
tender  than  men  of  that  day  were  in  general  ;  espe- 
cially with  all  children,  white  and  Indian,  and  was 
most  conscientious  in  his  relations  both  to  Indians 
and  negroes.  And  in  those  days  of  universal  whip- 
pings by  English  and  American  schoolmasters  and 
parents,  he  spoke  in  no  uncertain  voice  his  horror 
and  disapproval  of  the  rod  for  children,  and  never 
countenanced  or  permitted  any  whippings. 

There  was  certainly  great  diversity  in  dress  among 
those  who  called  themselves  Puritans.  Some  amus- 
ing stories  are  told  of  that  strange,  restless,  brilliant 

creature,  the  major-general  of  Cromwell's   army, 

Harrison.  When  the  first-accredited  ambassador 
sent  by  any  great  nation  to  the  new  republic  came 
to  London,  there  was  naturally  some  stir  as  to  the 
wisdom  of  certain  details  of  demeanor  and  dress. 
It  was  a  ticklish  time.  The  new  Commonwealth 
must  command  due  honor,  and  the  day  before  the 
audience  a  group  of  Parliament  gentlemen,  among 
them  Colonel  Hutchinson  and  one  who  was  after- 
wards the  Earl  of  Warwick,  were  seated  together 
when  Harrison  came  in  and  spoke  of  the  coming 
audience,  and  admonished  them  all  —  and  Hutchin- 
son in  particular,  "  who  was  in  a  habit  pretty  rich 
but  grave  and  none  other  than  he  usually  wore"  — 
that,  now  nations  sent  to  them,  they  must  "shine  in 
wisdom  and  piety,  not  in  gold  and  silver  and  worldly 
bravery  which  did  not  become  saints."  And  he 
asked  them  not  to  appear  before  the  ambassador  in 
"  gorgeous  habits."  So  the  colonel  —  though  he 
was  not  "  convinced  of  any  misbecoming  braverv  in 


44  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

a  suit  of  sad-coloured  cloth  trimmed  with  gold  and 
with  silver  points  and  buttons"  —  still  conformed 
to  his  comrade's  opinion,  and  appeared  as  did  all  the 
other  gentlemen  in  solemn,  handsome  black.  When 
who  should  come  in,  "  all  in  red  and  gold-a,"  —  in 
scarlet  coat  and  cloak  laden  with  gold  and  silver, 
"  the  coat  so  covered  with  clinquant  one  could 
scarcely  discern  the  ground,"  and  in  this  gorgeous 
and  glittering  habit  seat  himself  alone  just  under 
the  speaker's  chair  and  receive  the  specially  low  re- 
spects and  salutes  of  all  in  the  ambassador's  train, — 
who  should  thus  blazon  and  brazon  and  bourgeon 
forth  but  Harrison  !  1  presume,  though  Hutchin- 
son was  a  Puritan  and  a  saint,  he  was  a  bit  chagrined 
at  his  black  suit  of  garments,  and  a  bit  angered  at 
being  thus  decoyed  ;  and  it  touched  Madam  Hutch- 
inson deeply. 

But  Hutchinson  had  his  turn  to  wear  gay  clothes. 
A  great  funeral  was  to  be  given  to  Ireton,  who  was 
his  distant  kinsman  ;  yet  Cromwell,  from  jealousy, 
sent  no  bidding  or  mourning  suit  to  him.  A  gen- 
eral invitation  and  notice  was  given  to  the  whole 
assembly,  and  on  the  hour  of  the  funeral,  within  the 
great,  gloomy  state-chamber,  hung  in  funereal  black, 
and  filled  with  men  in  trappings  of  woe,  covered 
with  great  black  cloaks  with  long,  weeping  hatbands 
drooping  to  the  ground,  in  strode  Hutchinson ; 
this  time  he  was  in  scarlet  and  cliquante,  "  such  as 
he  usually  wore,"  —  so  wrote  his  wife,  —  astonishing 
the  eyes  of  all,  especially  the  diplomats  and  ambas- 
sadors who  were  present,  who  probably  deemed  him 
of  so  great  station  as  to  be  exempt  from    wearing 


Apparel  of  the  Puritan  and  Pilgrim  Fathers     45 

black.  The  master  of  ceremonies  timidly  regretted 
to  him,  in  hesitating  words,  that  no  mourning  had 
been  sent — it  had  been  in  someway  overlooked; 
the  General  could  not,  thus  unsuitably  dressed, 
follow  the  coffin  in  the  funeral  procession  —  it 
would  not  look  well  ;  the  master  of  ceremonies 
would  be  rebuked  —  all  which  proved  he  did  not 
know  Hutchinson,  for  follow  he  could,  and  would, 
and  did,  in  this  rich  dress.  And  he  walked  through 
the  streets  and  stood  in  the  Abbey,  with  his  scarlet 
cloak  flaunting  and  fluttering  like  a  gay  tropical  bird 
in  the  midst  of  a  slowly  flying,  sagging  flock  of  de- 
pressed black  crows,  —  you  have  seen  their  dragging, 
heavy  flight,  —  and  was  looked  upon  with  admiration 
and  love  by  the  people  as  a  splendid  and  soldierly 
figure. 

We  must  not  forget  that  the  years  which  saw  the 
settlement  of  Salem  and  Boston  were  not  under 
the  riot  of  dress  countenanced  by  James.  Charles 
I  was  then  on  the  throne  ;  and  the  rich  and  beauti- 
ful dress  worn  by  that  king  had  already  taken  shape. 

There  has  been  an  endeavor  made  to  attribute  this 
dress  to  the  stimulus,  to  the  influence,  of  Puritan 
feeling.  Possibly  some  of  the  reaction  against  the 
absurdities  of  Elizabeth  and  James  may  have  helped 
in  the  establishment  of  this  costume  ;  but  I  think 
the  excellent  taste  of  Charles  and  especially  of  his 
queen,  Henrietta  Maria,  who  succeeded  in  making 
women's  dress  wholly  beautiful,  may  be  thanked 
largely  for  it.  And  we  may  be  grateful  to  the 
painter  Van  Dyck  ;  for  he  had  not  only  great  taste 
as  to  dress,  and  genius  in  presenting  his  taste  to  the 


46  Two   Centuries   of  Costume 

public,  but  he  had  a  singular  appreciation  of  the 
pictorial  quality  of  dress  and  a  power  of  making 
dress  appropriate  to  the  wearer.  And  he  fully 
understood  its  value  in  indicating  character. 

Since  Van  Dyck  formed  and  painted  these  fine 
and  elegant  modes,  they  are  known  by  his  name, — 
it  is  the  Van  Dyck  costume.  We  have  ample  ex- 
position of  it,  for  his  portraits  are  many.  It  is 
told  that  he  painted  forty  portraits  of  the  king  and 
thirty  of  the  queen,  and  many  of  the  royal  children. 
There  are  nine  portraits  by  his  hand  of  the  Earl  of 
'Strafford,  the  king's  friend.  He  painted  the  Earl 
of  Arundel  seven  times.  Venetia,  Lady  Digby, 
had  four  portraits  in  one  vear.  He  painted  all 
persons  of  fashion,  many  of  distinction  and  dig- 
nity, and  some  with  no  special  reason  for  con- 
sideration or  portrayal. 

The  Van  Dyck  dress  is  a  gallant  dress,  one  fitted 
for  a  court,  not  for  everyday  life,  nor  for  a  strenu- 
ous life,  though  men  of  such  aims  wore  it.  The 
absurdity  of  Elizabeth's  day  is  lacking  ;  the  richness 
remains.  It  is  a  dress  distinctly  expressive  of  dig- 
nity. The  doublet  is  of  some  rich,  silken  stuff, 
usually  satin  or  velvet.  The  sleeves  are  loose  and 
graceful ;  at  one  time  they  were  slashed  liberally  to 
show  the  fine,  full,  linen  shirt-sleeve.  Here  are  a 
number  of  slashed  sleeves,  from  portraits  of  the  day, 
painted  by  Van  Dyck.  The  cuffs  of  the  doublet 
are  often  turned  back  deeply  to  show  embroidered 
shirt  cuffs  or  lace  ruffles,  or  even  linen  undersleeves. 
The  collar  of  the  doublet  was  wholly  covered  with 
a  band  or  collar  of  rich  lace  and  lawn,  or  all  lace  : 


Apparel  of  the  Puritan  and  Pilgrim  Fathers     47 

this  usually  with  the  pointed  edges  now  termed 
Vandykes.  Band  strings  of  ribbon  or  "  snake- 
bone  "  were  worn.  These  often  had  jewelled  tas- 
sels. Rich  tassels  of  pearl  were  the  favorite.  A 
short  cloak  was  thrown  gracefully  on  one  shoulder 
or  hung  at  the  back.  Knee-breeches  edged  with 
points  or  fringes  or  ribbons  met  the  tops  of  wide, 
high    boots   of    Spanish    leather,   which    often   also 


Slashed  Sleeves,  temp.  Charles  I. 

turned  over  with  ruffles  of  leather  or  lace.  Within- 
doors silken  hose  and  shoes  with  rich  shoe-roses  of 
lace  or  ribbon  were  worn.  A  great  hat,  broad- 
leafed,  often  of  Flemish  beaver,  had  a  splendid 
feather  and  jewelled  hatband.  A  rich  sword-belt 
and  gauritleted  and  fringed  gloves  were  added. 
A  peaked  beard  with  small  upturned  mustache 
formed  a  triangle,  with  the  mouth  in  the  centre, 
as  in  the  portrait  of.  General  Waller.  The  hair 
curled  loosely  in  the  neck,  and  was  rarely,  I  think, 
powdered. 


48  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

Other  great  painters  besides  Van  Dyck  were 
fortunately  in  England  at  the  time  this  dress  was 
worn,  and  the  king  was  a  patron  and  appreciator  of 
art.  Hence  they  were  encouraged  in  their  work  ; 
and  every  form  and  detail  of  this  beautiful  costume 
is  fully  depicted  for  us. 


CHAPTER    II 

DRESS    OF    THE    NEW    ENGLAND     MOTHERS 

"  Nowe  my  deare  hearte  let  me  parly e  a  little  with  thee  about 
trifles,  for  when  I  am  present  with  thee,  my  speeche  is  preiudiced 
by  thy  presence  which  drawes  my  mind  from  itself e  ;  I  suppose 
now,  upon  thy  unkles  cominge  there  wilbe  advisinge  £ff  counsel- 
linge  of  all  hands  ;  and  amongst  many  I  know  there  wilbe  some, 
that  wilbe  provokinge  thee,  in  these  indifferent  things,  as  matter 
of  apparell,  fashions  and  other  circumstances  ;  I  hould  it  a  rule 
of  Christian  wisdome  in  all  things  to  follow  the  soberest  exa?nples  ; 
I  confesse  that  there  be  some  ornaments  which  for  Virgins  and 
Knights  Daughters  &c  may  be  comly  and  tollerrable  wch  yet  in 
soe  great  a  change  as  thine  is,  may  well  admitt  a  change  allso ; 
I  will  medle  with  noe  particulars  neither  doe  I  thinke  it  shall 
be  needfull ;  thine  own  wisdome  and  godliness  shall  teach  thee 
sufficiently  what  to  doe  in  such  things.  I  knowe  thou  wilt  not 
grieve  me  for  trifles.  Let  me  intreate  thee  {my  szueet  Love)  to 
take  all  in  good  part." 

—  John  Winthrop  to  Margaret  Tyndale,  1616. 


CHAPTER    II 

DRESS    OF    THE    NEW    ENGLAND     MOTHERS 

HAVE  expressed  a  doubt  that  the 
dress  of  Cavalier  and  Puritan  varied  as 
much  as  has  been  popularly  believed  ; 
I  feel  sure  that  the  dress  of  Puritan 
women  did  not  differ  from  the  attire 
of  women  of  quiet  life  who  remained  in  the  Church 
of  England ;  nor  did  it  vary  materially  either  in 
form  or  quality  from  the  attire  of  the  sensible  fol- 
lowers of  court  life.  It  simply  did  not  extend  to  the 
extreme  of  the  mode  in  gay  color,  extravagance,  or 
grotesqueness.  In  the  first  severity  of  revolt  over 
the  dissoluteness  of  English  life  which  had  shown 
so  plainly  in  the  extravagance  and  absurdity  of  Eng- 
lish court  dress,  many  persons  of  deep  thought 
(especially  men),  both  of  the  Church  of  England 
and  of  the  Puritan  faith,  expressed  their  feeling  by 
a  change  in  their  dress.  Doubtless  also  in  some  the 
extremity  of  feeling  extended  to  fanaticism.  It  is 
always  thus  in  reforms ;  the  slow  start  becomes 
suddenly  a  violent  rush  which  needs  to  be  retarded 
and  moderated,  and  it  always  is  moderated.  I  have 
referred  to  one  exhibition  of  bigotry  in  regard  to 
dress  which  is  found  in  the  annals  of  Puritanism  ;  it 
is  detailed  in  the  censure  and  attempt  at  restraint  of 
5* 


52  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

the  dress  of  Madam  Johnson,  the  wife  of  the  Rev. 
Francis  Johnson,  the  pastor  of  the  exiles  to  Holland. 

There  is  a  tradition  that  Parson  Johnson  was  one 
of  the  Marprelate  brotherhood,  who  certainly  de- 
served the  imprisonment  they  received,  were  it  only 
for  their  ill-spelling  and  ill-use  of  their  native  tongue. 
The  Marprelate  pamphlet  before  me  as  I  write  had 
an  author  who  could  not  even  spell  the  titles  of  the 
prelates  it  assailed ;  but  called  them  "  parsones, 
fyckers  and  currats,"  the  latter  two  names  being  in- 
tended for  vicars  and  curates.  The  story  of  Madam 
Johnson's  revolt,  and  her  triumph,  is  preserved  to 
us  in  such  real  and  earnest  language,  and  was  such 
a  vital  thing  to  the  actors  in  the  little  play,  that  it 
seems  almost  irreverent  to  regard  it  as  a  farce,  yet 
none  to-day  could  read  of  it  without  a  sense  of  ab- 
surdity, and  we  may  as  well  laugh  frankly  and  freely 
at  the  episode. 

When  the  protagonist  of  this  Puritan  comedy 
entered  the  stage,  she  was  a  widow  —  Tomison  or 
Thomasine  Boyes,  a  "  warm  "  widow,  as  the  saying 
of  the  day  ran,  that  is,  warm  with  a  comfortable 
legacy  of  ready  money.  She  was  a  young  widow, 
and  she  was  handsome.  At  any  rate,  it  was  brought 
up  against  her  when  events  came  to  a  climax ;  it  was 
testified  in  the  church  examination  or  trial  that 
"  men  called  her  a  bouncing  girl,"  as  if  she  could 
help  that !  Husband  Boyes  had  been  a  haber- 
dasher, and  I  fancy  she  got  both  her  finery  and  her 
love  of  finery  in  his  shop.  And  it  was  told  with  all 
the  petty  terms  of  scandal-mongering  that  might  be 
heard  in  a  small  shop  in  a  small  English  town  to-day  ; 


Dress  of  the  New   England    Mothers         53 

it  was  told  very  gravely  that  the  "  clarkes  in  the 
shop  "  compared  her  for  her  pride  in  apparel  to  the 
wife  of  the  Bishop  of  London,  and  it  was  affirmed 
that  she  stood  "  gazing,  braving,  and  vaunting  in 
shop  doores." 

Now  this  special  complaint  against  the  Widow 
Boyes,  that  she  stood  braving  and  vaunting  in  shop 
doors,  was  not  a  far-fetched  attack  brought  as  a 
novelty  of  tantalizing  annoyance;  it  touches  in  her 
what  was  one  of  the  light  carriages  of  the  day,  which 
were  so  detestable  to  sober  and  thoughtful  folk,  an 
odious  custom  specified  by  Stubbes  in  his  Anatomy 
of  Abuses.  He  writes  thus  of  London  women,  the 
wives  of  merchants  :  — 

"  Othersome  spend  the  greater  part  of  the  daie  in  sit- 
tyng  at  the  doore,  to  shewe  their  braveries,  to  make  knowen 
their  beauties,  to  behold  the  passers  by ;  to  view  the  coast, 
to  see  fashions,  and  to  acquaint  themselves  of  the  bravest 
fellows  —  for,  if  not  for  these  causes,  I  know  no  other  causes 
why  they  should  sitt  at  their  doores  —  as  many  doe  from 
Morning  till  Noon,  from  Noon  till  Night." 

Other  writers  give  other  reasons  for  this  "  vaunt- 
ing." We  learn  that  "  merchants'  wives  had  seats 
built  a  purpose  "  to  sit  in,  in  order  to  lure  customers. 
Marston  in  'The  Dutch  Courtesan  says  :  — 

"His  wife's  a  proper  woman  —  that  she  is!  She  has 
been  as  proper  a  woman  as  any  in  the  Chepe.  She  paints 
now,  and  yet  she  keeps  her  husband's  old  customers  to  him 
still.  In  troth,  a  fine-fac'd  wife  in  a  wainscot-carved  seat, 
is  a  worthy  ornament  to  any  tradesman's  shop.  And  an 
attractive  one  I'le  warrant." 


54  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

This  handsome,  buxom,  bouncing  widow  fell  in 
love  with  Pastor  Johnson,  and  he  with  her,  while  he 
was  "a  prisoner  in  the  Clink,"  he  having  been 
thrown  therein  by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
for  his  persistent  preaching  of  Puritanism.  Many 
of  his  friends  "  thought  this  not  a  good  match  "  for 
him  at  any  time;  and  all  deemed  it  ill  advised  for  a 
man  in  prison  to  pledge  himself  in  matrimony  to  any 
one.  And  soon  zealous  and  meddlesome  Brother 
George  Johnson  took  a  hand  in  advice  and  counsel, 
with  as  high  a  hand  as  if  Francis  had  been  a  child 
instead  of  a  man  of  thirty-two,  and  a  man  of  expe- 
rience as  well,  and  likewise  older  than  George. 

George  at  first  opened  warily,  saying  in  his  letters 
that  "  he  was  very  loth  to  contrary  his  brother  ;  " 
still  Brother  Francis  must  be  sensible  that  this  widow 
was  noted  for  her  pride  and  vanity,  her  light  and 
garish  dress,  and  that  it  would  give  great  offence  to 
all  Puritans  if  he  married  her,  and  "  it  (the  vanity 
and  extravagance,  etc.)  should  not  be  refrained." 
There  was  then  some  apparent  concession  and  yield- 
ing on  the  widow's  part,  for  George  for  a  time  "  sett 
down  satysfyed " ;  when  suddenly,  to  his  "  great 
grief"  and  discomfiture,  he  found  that  his  brothe^ 
had  been  "  inveigled  and  overcarried,"  and  the  sly 
twain  had  been  married  secretly  in  prison. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  this  was  in  the  last 
years  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  in  1596,  when  the  laws 
were  rigid  in  attempts  at  limitation  of  dress,  as  I  shall 
note  later  in  this  chapter.  But  there  were  certain 
privileges  of  large  estate,  even  if  the  owner  were  of 
mean  birth  ;   and    Madam    Johnson    certainly    had 


Dress  of  the   New   England    Mothers         5$ 

money  enough  to  warrant  her  costly  apparel,  and  in 
ready  cash  also,  from  Husband  Boyes.  But  in  the 
first  good  temper  and  general  good  will  of  the  honey- 
moon she  " obeyed" ;  she  promised  to  dress  as  became 
her  husband's  condition,  which  would  naturally  mean 
much  simpler  attire.  He  was  soon  in  very  bad  case 
for  having  married  without  permission  of  the  arch- 
bishop, and  was  still  more  closely  confined  within- 
walls  ;  but  even  while  he  lingered  in  prison,  Brother 
George  saw  with  anguish  that  the  bride's  short  obe- 
dience had  ended.  She  appeared  in  "  more  garish 
and  proud  apparell  "  than  he  had  ever  before  seen 
upon  the  widow,  —  naturally  enough  for  a  bride, — 
even  the  bride  of  a  bridegroom  in  prison  ;  but  he 
"  dealt  with  her  that  she  would  refrain"  —  poor, 
simple  man  !  She  dallied  on,  tantalizing  him  and 
daring  him,  and  she  was  very  "bold  in  inviting 
proof,"  but  never  quitting  her  bridal  finery  for  one 
moment;  so  George  read  to  her  with  emphasis,  as  a 
final  and  unconquerable  weapon,  that  favorite  wail 
of  all  men  who  would  check  or  reprove  an  extrava- 
gant woman,  namely,  Isaiah  iii,  16  et  seq.,  the 
chapter  called  by  Mercy  Warren 

"  .  .  .  An  antiquated  page 
That  taught  us  the  threatenings  of  an  Hebrew  sage 
Gainst  wimples,  mantles,  curls  and  crisping  pins." 

I  wonder  how  many  Puritan  parsons  have  preached 
fatuously  upon  those  verses  !  how  many  defiant 
women  have  had  them  read  to  them  —  and  how  many 
meek  ones  !  I  knew  a  deacon's  wife  in  Worcester, 
some  years  ago,  who  asked  for  a  new  pair  of  India- 


56  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

rubber  overshoes,  and  in  pious  response  her  frugal 
partner  slapped  open  the  great  Bible  at  this  favorite 
third  chapter  of  the  lamentingand  threateningprophet, 
and  roared  out  to  his  poor  little  wife,  sitting  meekly 
before  him  in  calico  gown  and  checked  apron,  the 
lesson  of  the  haughty  daughters  of  Zion  walking 
with  stretched-forth  necks  and  tinkling  feet;  of 
their  chains  and  bracelets  and  mufflers  ;  their  bon- 
nets and  rings  and  rich  jewels  ;  their  mantles  and 
wimples  and  crisping-pins  ;  their  fair  hoods  and 
veils  —  oh,  how  she  must  have  longed  for  an 
Oriental   husband  ! 

Petulant  with  his  new  sister-in-law's  successful 
evasions  of  his  readings,  his  letters,  and  his  advice, 
his  instructions,  his  pleadings,  his  commands,  and 
"  full  of  sauce  and  zeal  "  like  Elnathan,  George  John- 
son, in  emulation  of  the  prophet  Isaiah,  made  a  list 
of  the  offences  of  this  London  "daughter  of  Zion," 
wrote  them  out,  and  presented  them  to  the  congrega- 
tion. She  wore  "3,  4,  or  even  5  gold  rings  at  one 
time."  Then  likewise  "  her  Busks  and  ye  Whale- 
bones at  her  Brest  were  soe  manifest  that  many  of 
ye  Saints  were  greeved  thereby."  She  was  asked  to 
"  pull  off  her  Excessive  Deal  of  Lace."  And  she  was 
fairly  implored  to  "  exchange  ye  Schowish  Hatt  for 
a  sober  Taffety  or  Felt."  She  was  ordered  severely 
"to  discontinue  Whalebones,"  and  to  "  quit  ye  great 
starcht  Ruffs,  ye  Muske,  and  ye  Rings."  And  not 
to  wear  her  bodice  tied  to  her  petticoat  "  as  men 
do  their  doublets  to  their  hose  contrary  to  1  Thessa- 
lonians,  V,  22."  And  a  certain  stomacher  or  necker- 
chief he  plainly  called  "abominable  and  loathsome." 


Dress  of  the  New   England  Mothers         57 

A  "  schowish  Velvet  Hood,"  such  as  only  "the 
richest,  finest  and  proudest  sort  should  use,"  was  like- 
wise beyond  endurance,  almost  beyond  forgiveness, 
and  other  "  gawrish  gear  gave  him  grave  greevance." 


Mrs.  William  Clark. 


But  here  the  young  husband  interfered,  as  it  was 
high  time  he  should ;  and  he  called  his  brother 
"  fantasticall,  fond,  ignorant,  anabaptisticall  and  such 
like,"  though  what  the  poor  Anabaptists  had  to 
do  with  such  dress  quarrels  I  know  not.  George's 
cautious  reference  in  his  letter  to  the  third  verse  of 
the  third  chapter  of  Jeremiah  made  the  parson  call 


58  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

it  "  the  Abhominablest  Letter  ever  was  written." 
George,  a  bit  frightened,  answered  pacificatorily 
that  he  noted  of  late  that  "  the  excessive  lace  upon 
the  sleeve  of  her  dress  had  a  Cover  drawn  upon 
it ;  "  that  the  stomacher  was  not  "  so  gawrish,  so  low, 
and  so  spitz-fashioned  as  it  was  wont  to  be  "  ;  nor 
was  her  hat  "  so  topishly  set,"  —  and  he  expressed 
pious  gladness  at  the  happy  change,  "  hoping  more 
would  follow,"  —  and  for  a  time  all  did  seem  subdued. 
But  soon  another  meddlesome  young  man  became 
"  greeved  "  (did  ever  any  one  hear  of  such  a  set  of 
silly,  grieving  fellows  ?) ;  and  seeing  "  how  heavily  the 
young  gentleman  took  it,"  stupid  George  must  in- 
terfere again,  to  be  met  this  time  very  boldly  by  the 
bouncing  girl  herself,  who,  he  writes  sadly,  answered 
him  in  a  tone  "  very  peert  and  coppet."  "  Coppet " 
is  a*  delightful  old  word  which  all  our  dictionaries 
have  missed  ;  it  signifies  impudent,  saucy,  or,  to  be 
precise,  "  sassy,"  which  we  all  know  has  a  shade 
more  of  meaning.  "  Peert  and  coppet"  is  a  delightful 
characterization.  George  refused  to  give  the  sad 
young  complainer's  name,  who  must  have  been  well 
ashamed  of  himself  by  this  time,  and  was  then  re- 
proached with  being  a  "  forestaller,"  a  "  picker,"  and 
a  "  quarrelous  meddler"  —  and  with  truth. 

During  the  action  of  this  farce,  all  had  gone  from 
London  into  exile  in  Holland.  Then  came  the 
sudden  trip  to  Newfoundland  and  the  disastrous 
and  speedy  return  to  Holland  again.  And  through 
the  misfortunes  and  the  exiles,  the  company  drew 
more  closely  together,  and  gentle  words  prevailed  ; 
George  was  "  sorie  if  he  had  overcarried  himself"; 


Dress  of  the  New  England  Mothers        59 

Madam  "  was  sure  if  it  were  to  do  now,  she  would 
not  so  wear  it."  Still,  she  did  not  offer  her  martinet 
of  a  brother-in-law  a  room  to  lodge  in  in  her  house, 
though  she  had  many  rooms  unused,  and  he  needed 
shelter,  whereat  he  whimpered  much ;  and  soon  he 
was  charging  her  again  "  with  Muske  as  a  sin " 
(musk  was  at  that  time  in  the  very  height  of  fashion 
in  France)  and  cavilling  at  her  unbearable  "  topish 
hat."  Then  came  long  argument  and  sparring  for 
months  over  "  topishness,"  which  seems  to  have 
been  deemed  a  most  offensive  term.  They  told  its 
nature  and  being;  they  brought  in  Greek  deriva- 
tives, and  the  pastor  produced  a  syllogism  upon  the 
word.  And  they  declared  that  the  hat  in  itself  was 
not  topish,  but  only  became  so  when  she  wore  it, 
she  being  the  wife  of  a  preacher ;  and  they  disputed 
over  velvet  and  vanity ;  they  bickered  over  topish- 
ness and  lightness;  they  wrangled  about  lawn  coives 
and  busks  in  a  way  that  was  sad  to  read.  The 
pastor  argued  soundly,  logically,  that  both  coives 
and  busks  might  be  lawfully  used ;  whereat  one  of 
his  flock,  Christopher  Dickens,  rose  up  promptly 
in  dire  fright  and  dread  of  future  extravagance 
among  the  women-saints  in  the  line  of  topish  hats 
and  coives  and  busks,  and  he  "  begged  them  not  to 
speak  so,  and  so  loud,  lest  it  should  bring  many  in- 
conveniences among  their  wives."  Finally  the  topish 
head-gear  was  demanded  in  court,  which  the  parson 
declared  was  "  offensive  "  ;  and  so  they  bickered  on 
till  a  most  unseemly  hour,  till  ten  o'clock  at  night,  as 
"  was  proved  by  the  watchman  and  rattleman  com- 
ing about."     Naturally  they  wished  to  go  to  bed  at 


60  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

an  early  hour,  for  religious  services  began  at  nine; 
one  of  the  complaints  against  the  topish  bride  was 
that  she  was  a  "  slug-a-bed,"  flippantly  refused  to 
rise  and  have  her  house  ordered  and  ready  for  the 


Lady  Mary  Armine. 


nine  o'clock  public  service.  The  meetings  were 
then  held  in  the  parson's  house,  and  held  every  day  ; 
which  may  have  been  one  reason  why  the  settle- 
ment grew  poorer.  It  matters  little  what  was  said, 
or  how  it  ended,  since  it  did  not  disrupt  and  disband 


Dress  of  the  New  England  Mothers        61 

the  Holland  Pilgrims.  For  eleven  years  this  stupid 
wrangling  lasted  ;  and  it  seemed  imminent  that  the 
settlement  would  finish  with  a  separation,  and  a 
return  of  many  to  England.  Slight  events  have 
great  power  —  this  topish  hat  of  a  vain  and  pretty,  a 
peert  and  coppet  young  Puritan  bride  came  near  to 
hindering  and  changing  the  colonization  of  America. 
I  have  related  this  episode  at  some  length  be- 
cause its  recounting  makes  us  enter  into  the  spirit 
of  the  first  Separatist  settlers.  It  shows  us  too  that 
dress  conquered  zeal ;  it  could  not  be  "  forborne  " 
by  entreaty,  by  reproof,  by  discipline,  by  threats, 
by  example.  An  influence,  or  perhaps  I  should 
term  it  an  echo,  of  this  long  quarrel  is  seen  plainly 
by  the  thoughtful  mind  in  the  sumptuary  laws  of 
the  New  World.  Some  of  the  articles  of  dress  so 
dreaded,  so  discussed  in  Holland,  still  threatened 
the  peace  of  Puritanical  husbands  in  New  England  ; 
they  still  dreaded  "many  inconveniences."  In 
1634,  the  general  court  of  Massachusetts  issued 
this  edict :  — 

"  That  no  person,  man  or  woman,  shall  hereafter  make 
or  buy  any  Apparell,  either  Woolen,  or  Silk,  or  Linen,  with 
any  Lace  on  it,  Silver,  Gold,  or  Thread,  under  the  penalty 
of  forfeiture  of  said  clothes.  Also  that  no  person  either 
man  or  woman,  shall  make  or  buy  any  Slashed  Clothes, 
other  than  one  Slash  in  each  Sleeve  and  another  in  the  Back. 
Also  all  Cut-works,  embroideries,  or  Needlework  Caps, 
Bands  or  Rails,  are  forbidden  hereafter  to  be  made  and 
worn  under  the  aforesaid  Penalty  ;  also  all  gold  or  silver 
Girdles  Hat  bands,  Belts,  Ruffs,  Beaver  hats  are  prohibited 
to  be  bought  and  worn  hereafter." 


62  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

Fines  were  stated,  also  the  amount  of  estate  which 
released  the  dress-wearer  from  restriction.  Liberty 
was  given  to  all  to  wear  out  the  apparel  which  they 
had  on  hand  except  "immoderate  great  sleeves, 
slashed  apparell,  immoderate  great  rails,  and  long 
wmgS  "  —  these  being  beyond  endurance. 

In  1639  "immoderate  great  breeches,  knots  of 
riban,  broad  shoulder  bands  and  rayles,  silk  roses, 
double  ruffles  and  capes  "  were  forbidden  to  folk  of 
low  estate.  Soon  the  court  expressed  its  "utter 
detestation  and  dislike,"  that  men  and  women  of 
"mean  condition,  education  and  calling"  should 
take  upon  themselves  "  the  garb  of  gentlemen  "  by 
wearing  gold  and  silver  lace,  buttons  and  points  at 
the  knee,  or  "  walk  in  great  boots,"  or  women  of  the 
same  low  rank  to  wear  silk  or  tiffany  hoods  or  scarfs. 
There  were  likewise  orders  that  no  short  sleeves 
should  be  worn  "whereby  the  nakedness  of  the 
arms  may  be  discovered";  women's  sleeves  were 
not  to  be  more  than  half  an  ell  wide ;  long  hair  and 
immodest  laying  out  of  the  hair  and  wearing  borders 
of  hair  were  abhorrent.  Poor  folk  must  not  appear 
with  "  naked  breasts  and  arms  ;  or  as  it  were  pinioned 
with  superstitious  ribbons  on  hair  and  apparell." 
Tailors  who  made  garments  for  servants  or  children, 
richer  than  the  garments  of  the  parents  or  masters 
of  these  juniors,  were  to  be  fined.  Similar  laws  were 
passed  in  Connecticut  and  Virginia.  I  know  of  no 
one  being  "  psented  "  under  these  laws  in  Virginia, 
but  in  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts  both  men  and 
women  were  fined.  In  1676,  in  Northampton, 
thirty-six  young  women  at  one  time  were  brought 


The  Tub-preache 


Dress  of  the  New  England   Mothers         63 

up  for  overdress  chiefly  in  hoods  ;  and  an  amusing 
entry  in  the  court  record  is  that  one  of  them,  Han- 
nah Lyman,  appeared  in  the  very  hood  for  which 
she  was  fined ;  and  was  thereupon  censured  for 
"wearing  silk  in  a  fnonting  manner,  in  an  offensive 
way,  not  only  before  but  when  she  stood  Psented. 
Not  only  in  Ordinary  but  Extraordinary  times." 
These  girls  were  all  fined ;  but  six  years  later,  when 
a  stern  magistrate  attempted  a  similar  persecution, 
the  indictments  were  quashed. 

It  is  not  unusual  to  find  the  careless  observer  or 
the  superficial  reader  —  and  writer  —  commenting 
upon  the  sumptuary  laws  of  the  New  World  as 
if  they  were  extraordinary  and  peculiar.  There 
appeared  in  a  recent  American  magazine  a  long 
rehearsal  of  the  unheard-of  presumption  of  Puritan 
magistrates  in  their  prohibition  of  certain  articles  of 
dress.  This  writer  was  evidently  wholly  ignorant 
of  the  existence  of  similar  laws  in  England,  and  even 
of  like  laws  in  Virginia,  but  railed  against  Winthrop 
and  Endicott  as  monsters  of  Puritanical  arrogance 
and  impudence. 

In  truth,  however,  such  laws  had  existed  not  only 
in  France  and  England,  but  since  the  days  of  the 
old  Locrian  legislation,  when  it  was  ordered  that  no 
woman  should  go  attended  with  more  than  one 
maid  in  the  street  "  unless  she  were  drunk."  An- 
cient Rome  and  Sparta  were  surrounded  by  dress 
restrictions  which  were  broken  just  as  were  similar 
ones  in  more  modern  times.  The  Roman  could 
wear  a  robe  but  of  a  single  color ;  he  could  wear 
in   embroideries   not   more  than   half  an   ounce  of 


Two   Centuries   of  Costu 


Old  Ven 


gold ;  and  with  what  seems  churlishness  he  was 
forbidden  to  ride  in  a  carriage.  At  that  time,  just 
as  in  later  days,  dress  was  made  to  emphasize  class 
distinction,  and  the  clergy  joined  with  the  magis- 
trates in  denouncing  extravagant  dress  in  both  men 
and  women.  The  chronicles  of  the  monks  are  ever 
chiding  men  for  their  peaked  shoes,  deep  sleeves 
and  curled  locks  like  women,  and  Savonarola  out- 
did them  all  in  severity.  The  English  kings  and 
queens,  jealous  of  the  rich  dress  of  their  opulent 
subjects,  multiplied  restrictions,  and  some  very 
curious  anecdotes  exist  of  the  calm  assumption 
by  both  Elizabeth  and  Mary  to  their  own  ward- 
robe of  the  rich  finery  of  some  lady  at  the  court 
who  displayed  some  new  and  too  becoming  fancy. 
Adam  Smith  declared  it  "an  act  of  highest  im- 
pertinence and  presumption  for  kings  and  rulers  to 


Dress  of  the  New   England   Mothers        65 

pretend  to  watch  over  the  earnings  and  expenditure 
of  private  persons,"  nevertheless  this  public  inter- 
ference lingered  long,  especially  under  monarchies. 

These  sumptuary  laws  of  New  England  fol- 
lowed in  spirit  and  letter  similar  laws  in  England. 
Winthrop  had >  seen  the  many  apprentices  who  ran 
through  London  streets,  dressed  under  laws  as  full 
of  details  of  dress  as  is  a  modern  journal  of  the 
modes.  For  instance,  the  apprentice's  head-cover- 
ing must  be  a  small,  flat,  round  cap,  called  often  a 
bonnet  —  a  hat  like  a  pie-dish.  The  facing  of  the 
hat  could  not  exceed  three  inches  in  breadth  in  the 
head  ;  nor  could  the  hat  with  band  and  facing  cost 
over  five  shillings.  His  band  or  collar  could  have 
no  lace  edge ;  it  must  be  of  linen  not  over  five 
shillings  an  ell  in  price ;  and  could  have  no  other 
work  or  ornament  save  "  a  plain  hem  and  one 
stitch" — which  was  a  hemstitch.  If  he  wore  a 
ruff,  it  must  not  be  over  three  inches  wide  before 
it  was  gathered  and  set  into  the  "stock."  The 
collar  of  his  doublet  could  have  neither  "  point, 
well-bone  or  plait,"  but  must  be  made  "  close  and 
comely."  The  stuff  of  his  doublet  and  breeches 
could  not  cost  over  two  shillings  and'  sixpence  a 
yard.  It  could  be  either  cloth,  kersey,  fustian, 
sackcloth,  canvas,  or  "  English  stuff""  ;  or  leather 
could  be  used.  The  breeches  were  generally  of 
the  shape  known  as  "  round  slops."  His  stock- 
ings could  be  knit  or  of  cloth  ;  but  his  shoes  could 
have  no  polonia  heels.  His  hair  was  to  be  cut 
close,  with  no  "  tuft  or  lock." 

Queen    Elizabeth    stood    no    nonsense    in    these 


66  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

things  ;  finding  that  London  'prentices  had  adopted 
a  certain  white  stitching  for  their  collars,  she  put  a 
stop  to  this  mild  finery  by  ordering  the  first  trans- 
gressor to  be  whipped  publicly  in  the  hall  of  his 
company.  These  same  laws,  tinkered  and  altered 
to  suit  occasions,  appear  for  many  years  in  English 
records,  for  years  after  New  England's  sumptuary 
laws  were  silenced. 

Notwithstanding  Hannah  Lyman  and  the  thirty- 
six  vain  Northampton  girls,  we  do  not  on  the  whole 
hear  great  complaint  of  extravagance  in  dress  or  de- 
portment. At  any  rate  none  were  called  bouncing 
girls.  The  portraits  of  men  or  women  certainly 
show  no  restraint  as  to  richness  in  dress.  Their 
sumptuary  laws  were  of  less  use  to  their  day  than 
to  ours,  for  they  do  reveal  to  us  what  articles  of 
dress  our  forbears  wore. 

While  the  Massachusetts  magistrates  were  fussing 
a  little  over  woman's  dress,  the  parsons,  as  a  whole, 
were  remarkably  silent.  Of  course  two  or  three  of 
them  could  not  refrain  from  announcing  a  text  from 
Isaiah  iii,  16  et  seq.,  and  enlarging  upon  the  well- 
worn  wimples  and  nose  jewels,  and  bells  on  their 
feet,  which  were  as  much  out  of  fashion  in  Massa- 
chusetts then  as  now.  It  is  such  a  well-rounded, 
ringing,  colorful  arraignment  of  woman's  follies 
you  couldn't  expect  a  parson  to  give  it  up.  Every 
evil  predicted  of  the  prophet  was  laid  at  the  door  of 
these  demure  Puritan  dames,  —  fire  and  war,  and 
caterpillars,  and  even  baldness,  which  last  was  really 
unjust.  Solomon  Stoddard  preached  on  the  "Intol- 
erable Pride  in  the  Plantations  in  Clothes  and  Hair," 


Rebecca  Rawson. 


Dress  of  the  New  England  Mothers         67 

that  his  parishioners  "  drew  iniquity  with  a  cord  of 
vanity  and  sin  with  a  cart-rope."  The  apostle  Paul 
also  furnished  ample  texts  for  the  Puritan  preacher. 
In  the  eleventh  chapter  of  Corinthians  wise  Paul 
delivered  some  sentences  of  exhortation,  of  re- 
proof, of  warning  to  Corinthian  women  which  1 
presume  he  understood  and  perhaps  Corinthian 
dames  did,  but  which  have  been  a  dire  puzzle  since 
to  parsons  and  male  members  of  their  congregations. 
(I  cannot  think  that  women  ever  bothered  much 
about  his  words.)  For  instance,  Archbishop  Lati- 
mer, in  one  of  the  cheerful,  slangy  rallies  to  his 
hearers  which  he  called  sermons,  quotes  Paul's  sen- 
tence that  a  woman  ought  to  have  a  power  on  her 
head,  and  construes  positively  that  a  power  is  a 
French  hood.  This  is  certainly  a  somewhat  sur- 
prising notion,  but  I  presume  he  knew.  However, 
Roger  Williams  deemed  a  power  a  veil ;  and  being 
somewhat  dictatorial  in  his  words,  albeit  the  tender- 
est  of  creatures  in  his  heart,  he  bade  Salem  women 
come  to  meeting  in  a  veil,  telling  them  they  should 
come  like  Sarah  of  old,  wearing  this  veil  as  a  token 
of  submission  to  their  husbands.  The  text  saith 
this  exactly,  "A  woman  ought  to  have  power  on 
her  head  because  of  the  angels,"  which  seems  to  me 
one  of  those  convenient  sayings  of  Paul  and  others 
which  can  be  twisted  to  many,  to  any  meanings, 
even  to  Latimer's  French  hood.  Old  John  Cotton, 
of  course,  found  ample  Scripture  to  prove  Salem 
women  should  not  wear  veils,  and  so  here  in  this 
New  World,  as  in  the  Holland  sojourn,  the  head- 
covering  of  the  mothers  rent  in  twain  the  meetings 


68  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

of  the  fathers,  while  the  women  wore  veils  or  no 
veils,  French  hoods  or  beaver  hats,  in  despite  of 
Paul's  opinions  and  their  husbands'  constructions  of 
his  opinions. 

An  excellent  description  of  the  Puritan  women 
of  a  dissenting  congregation  is  in  Hudibras  Redi- 
vivus ;   it  reads  :  — 

"The  good  old  dames  among  the  rest 
Were  all  most  primitively  drest 
In  stiffen-bodyed  russet  gowns 
And  on  their  heads  old  steeple  crowns 
With  pristine  pinners  next  their  faces 
Edged  round  with  ancient  scallop-laces, 
Such  as,  my  antiquary  says, 
Were  worn  in  old  Queen  Bess's  days, 
In  ruffs  ;  and  fifty  other  ways 
Their  wrinkled  necks  were  covered  o'er 
With  whisks  of  lawn  by  granmarms  wore." 

The  "  old  steeple  crowns "  over  "  pristine  pin- 
ners "  were  not  peculiar  to  the  Puritans.  There 
was  a  time,  in  the  first  years  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  when  many  Englishwomen  wore  steeple- 
crowned  hats  with  costly  hatbands.  We  find  them 
in  pictures  of  women  of  the  court,  as  well  as  upon 
the  heads  of  Puritans.  I  have  a  dozen  prints  and 
portraits  of  Englishwomen  in  rich  dress  with  these 
hats.  The  Quaker  Tub-preacher,  facing  page  62, 
wears  one.  Perhaps  the  best  known  example  to 
Americans  may  be  seen  in  the  portrait  of  Poca- 
hontas facing  page  122. 

Authentic  portraits  of  American  women  who  came 
in  the  Mayflower  or  in  the  first  ships  to  the  Massa- 


Dress  of  the  New  England  Mothers        69 

chusetts  Bay  settlement,  there  are  none  to  my 
knowledge.  Some  exist  which  are  doubtless  of  that 
day,  but  cannot  be  certified.  One  preserved  in  Con- 
necticut in  the  family  of  Governor  Eaton  shows  a 
brown  old  canvas  like  a  Rembrandt.  The  subject 
is  believed  to  be  of  the  Yale  family,  and  the  chief 
and  most  distinct  feature  of  dress  is  the  ruff. 

It  was  a  time  of  change  both  of  men's  and 
women's  neckwear.  A  few  older  women  clung  to 
the  ruffs  of  their  youth ;  younger  women  wore 
bands,  falling-bands,  falls,  rebatoes,  falling-whisks 
and  whisks,  the  "  fifty  other  ways  "  which  could  be 
counted  everywhere.     Carlyle  says  :  — 

"  There  are  various  traceable  small  threads  of  relation, 
interesting  reciprocities  and  mutabilities  connecting  the  poor 
young  Infant,  New  England,  with  its  old  Puritan  mother 
and  her  affairs,  which  ought  to  be  disentangled,  to  be  made 
conspicuous  by  the  Infant  herself  now  she  has  grown  big." 

These  traceable  threads  of  relation  are  ever  of  ro- 
mantic interest  to  me,  and  even  when  I  refer  to  the 
dress  of  English  folk  I  linger  with  pleasure  with 
those  whose  lives  were  connected  even  by  the  small- 
est thread  with  the  Infant,  New  England.  One 
such  thread  of  connection  was  in  the  life  of  Lady 
Mary  Armine ;  so  I  choose  to  give  her  picture  on 
page  60,  to  illustrate  the  dress,  if  not  of  a  New  Eng- 
lander,  yet  of  one  of  New  England's  closest  friends. 
She  was  a  noble,  high-minded  English  gentlewoman, 
who  gave  "  even  to  her  dying  day  "  to  the  conver- 
sion of  poor  tawny  heathen  of  New  England.  A 
churchwoman  by  open  profession,  she  was  a  Puri- 


7<d  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

tan  in  her  sympathies,  as  were  many  of  England's 
best  hearts  and  souls  who  never  left  the  Church  of 
England.  She  gave  in  one  gift  jC^oo  to  families 
of  ministers  who  had  been  driven  from  their  pulpits 
in  England.  The  Nipmuck  schools  at  Natick  and 
Hassamanesit  (near  Grafton)  were  founded  under 
her  patronage.  The  life  of  this  "Truly  Honoura- 
ble, Very  Aged  and  Singularly  Pious  Lady  who  dyed 
1675,"  was  written  as  a  "pattern  to  Ladies."  Her 
long  prosy  epitaph,  after  enumerating  the  virtues  of 
many  of  the  name  of  Mary,  concludes  thus  :  — 

"  The  Army  of  such  Ladies  so  Divine 
This  Lady  said  'I'll  follow,  they  Ar-mine.' 
Lady  Elect  !   in  whom  there  did  combine 
So  many  Maries,  might  well  say  All  Ar-mine." 

A  pun  was  a  Puritan's  one  jocularity ;  and  he 
would  pun  even  in  an  epitaph. 

It  will  be  seen  that  Lady  Mary  Armine  wears  the 
straight  collar  or  band,  and  the  black  French  hood 
which  was  the  forerunner,  then  the  rival,  and  at  last 
the  survivor  of  the  "  sugar-loaf"  beaver  or  felt  hat,  — 
a  hood  with  a  history,  which  will  have  a  chapter  for 
the  telling  thereof.  Lady  Mary  wears  a  peaked 
widow's  cap  under  her  hood ;  this  also  is  a  detail  of 
much  interest. 

Another  portrait  of  this  date  is  of  Mrs.  Clark  (see 
page  57).  This  has  two  singular  details  ;  namely, 
a  thumb-ring,  which  was  frequently  owned  but  in- 
frequently painted,  and  a  singular  bracelet,  which  is 
accurately  described  in  the  verse  of  Herrick,  written 
at  that  date  :  — 


Dress  of  the  New  England  Mothers         71 

"1  saw  about  her  spotless  wrist 
Of  blackest  silk  a  curious  twist 
Which  circumvolving  gently  there 
Enthralled  her  arm  as  prisoner." 

I  may  say  in  passing  that  I  have  seen  in  portraits 
knots  of  narrow  ribbon  on  the  wrists,  both  of  men 
and  women,  and  I  am  sure  they  had  some  mourn- 
ing significance,  as  did  the  knot  of  black  on  the  left 
arm  of  the  queen  of  King  James  of  England. 

We  have  in  the  portrait  shown  as  a  frontispiece 
an  excellent  presentment  of  the  dress  of  the  Puri- 
tan woman  of  refinement ;  the  dress  worn  by  the 
wives  of  Winthrop,  Endicott,  Leverett,  Dudley, 
Saltonstall,  and  other  gentlemen  of  Salem  and  Bos- 
ton and  Plymouth.  We  have  also  the  dress  worn 
by  her  little  child  about  a  year  old.  This  portrait  is 
of  Madam  Padishal.  She  was  a  Plymouth  woman  ; 
and  we  know  from  the  inventories  of  estates  that 
there  were  not  so  many  richly  dressed  women  in 
Plymouth  as  in  Boston  and  Salem.  This  dress  of 
Madam  Padishal's  is  certainly  much  richer  than  the 
ordinary  attire  of  Plymouth  dames  of  that  generation. 

This  portrait  has  been  preserved  in  Plymouth  in 
the  family  of  Judge  Thomas,  from  whom  it  de- 
scended to  the  present  owner.  Madam  Padishal 
was  young  and  handsome  when  this  portrait  was 
painted.  Her  black  velvet  gown  is  shaped  just  like 
the  gown  of  Madam  Rawson  (facing  page  66),  of 
Madam  Stoddard  (facing  page  76),  both  Boston 
women ;  and  of  the  English  ladies  of  her  times. 
It  is  much  richer  than  that  of  Lady  Mary  Armine 
or  Mrs.  Clark. 


J2  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

The  gown  of  Madam  Padishal  is  varied  pleas- 
ingly from  that  of  Lady  Mary  Armine,  in  that  the 
body  is  low-necked,  and  the  lace  whisk  is  worn  over 
the  bare  neck.  The  pearl  necklace  and  ear-rings 
likewise  show  a  more  frivolous  spirit  than  that  of 
the  English  dame. 

Another  Plymouth  portrait  of  very  rich  dress,  that 
of  Elizabeth  Paddy,  Mrs.  John  Wensley,  faces  this 
page.  The  dress  in  this  is  a  golden-brown  bro- 
cade under-petticoat  and  satin  overdress.  The  stiff, 
busked  stays  are  equal  to  Queen  Elizabeth's.  Revers 
at  the  edge  of  overdress  and  on  the  virago  sleeves 
are  now  of  flame  color,  a  Spanish  pink,  but  were 
originally  scarlet,  I  am  sure.  The  narrow  stom- 
acher is  a  beaded  galloon  with  bright  spangles  and 
bugles.  On  the  hair  there  shows  above  the  ears  a 
curious  ornament  which  resembles  a  band  of  this 
galloon.  There  are  traces  of  a  similar  ornament  in 
Madam  Rawson's  portrait  (facing  page  66) ;  and 
Madam  Stoddard's  (facing  page  76)  has  some  orna- 
ment over  the  ears.  This  may  have  been  a  modifi- 
cation of  a  contemporary  Dutch  head-jewel.  The 
pattern  of  the  lace  of  Elizabeth  Paddy's  whisk  is 
most  distinct;  it  was  a  good  costly  Flemish  parch- 
ment lace  like  Mrs.  Padishal's.  She  carries  a  fan,  and 
wears  rings,  a  pearl  necklace,  and  ear-rings.  I  may  say 
here  that  I  have  never  seen  other  jewels  than  these, 
—  a  few  rings,  and  necklace  and  ear-rings  of  pearl. 
Other  necklaces  seem  never  to  have  been  worn. 

We  cannot  always  trust  that  all  the  jewels  seen 
in  these  portraits  were  real,  or  that  the  sitter  owned 
as  many  as  represented.    A  bill  is  in  existence  where 


Bg'x                        ^1118 

Br--'"'     >n 

^r^-^?^  jfe 

j^l 

■w    M4J 

Elizabeth  Paddy  Wensley. 


Dress  of  the  New  England  Mothers         73 

a  painter  charged  ten  shillings  extra  for  bestowing  a 
gold  and  pearl  necklace  upon  his  complaisant  sub- 
ject. In  this  case,  however,  the  extra  charge  was  to 
pay  for  the  gold  paint  or  gold-leaf  used  for  gilding 
the  painted  necklace.  In  the  amusing  letters  of 
Lady  Sussex  to  Lord  Verney  are  many  relating 
to  her  portrait  by  Van  Dyck.  She  consented  to 
the  painting  very  unwillingly,  saying,  "  it  is  money 
ill  bestowed."      She  writes  :  — 

"  Put  Sr  Vandyke  in  remembrance  to  do  my  pictuer  well. 
I  have  seen  sables  with  the  clasp  of  them  set  with  dia- 
monds—  if  those  I  am  pictured  in  were  done  so,  I  think 
it  would  look  very  well  in  the  pictuer.  If  Sr  Vandyke 
thinks  it  would  do  well  I  pray  desier  him  to  do  all  the 
clawes  so.  I  do  not  mene  the  end  of  the  tales  but  only 
the  end  of  the  other  peces,  they  call  them  clawes  I  think." 

This  gives  a  glimpse  of  a  richness  of  detail  in 
dress  even  beyond  our  own  day,  and  one  which  I 
commend  to  some  New  York  dame  of  vast  wealth, 
to  have  the  claws  of  her  sables  set  with  diamonds. 
She  writes  later  in  two  letters  of  some  weeks'  differ- 
ence in  date  :  — 

"  I  am  glad  you  have  prefalede  with  Sr  Vandyke  to 
make  my  pictuer  leaner,  for  truly  it  was  too  fat.  If  he 
made  it  farer  it  will  bee  to  my  credit.  I  am  glad  you  have 
made  Sr  Vandyke  mind  my  dress."   .   .   . 

"  I  am  glad  you  have  got  home  my  pictuer,  but  I  doubt 
he  has  made  it  lener  or  farer,  but  too  rich  in  jewels,  I  am 
sure ;  but  'tis  no  great  matter  for  another  age  to  thinke  mee 
richer  than  I  was.  I  wish  it  could  be  mended  in  the  face 
for  sure  'tis  very  ugly.      The  pictuer  is  very  ill-favourede, 


74  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

makes  me  quite  out  of  love  with  myselfe,  the  face  is  so 
bigg  and  so  fat  it  pleases  mee  not  at  all.  It  looks  like  one 
of  the  Windes  puffinge  —  (but  truly  I  think  it  is  lyke  the 
original)." 

I  am  struck  by  a  likeness  in  workmanship  in 
the  portraits  of  these  two  Plymouth  dames,  and 
the  portrait  of  Madam  Stoddard  (facing  page  76), 
and  succeeding  illustrations  of  the  Gibbes  chil- 
dren. I  do  wish  I  knew  whether  these  were 
painted  by  Tom  Child  —  a  painter-stainer  and  limner 
referred  to  by  Judge  Samuel  Sewall  in  his  Diary, 
who  was  living  in  Boston  at  that  time.  Perhaps 
we  may  find  something,  some  day,  to  tell  us  this. 
I  feel  sure  these  were  all  painted  in  America, 
especially  the  portraits  of  the  Gibbes  children.  A 
great  many  coats-of-arms  were  made  in  Boston  at 
this  time,  and  I  expect  the  painter-stainer  made 
them.  All  painting  then  was  called  coloring.  A 
man  would  say  in  1700,  "Archer  has  set  us  a  fine 
example  of  expense ;  he  has  colored  his  house, 
and  has  even  laid  one  room  in  oils ;  he  had  the 
painter-stainer  from  Boston  to  do  it  —  the  man  who 
limns  faces,  and  does  pieces,  and  tricks  coats." 
This  was  absolutely  correct  English,  but  we  would 
hardly  know  that  the  man  meant :  "  Archer  has 
been  extravagant  enough  ;  he  has  painted  his  house, 
and  even  painted  the  woodwork  of  one  room.  He 
had  the  artist  from  Boston  to  do  the  work  —  the 
painter  of  faces  and  full-lengths,  who  makes  coats- 
of-arms." 

It  is  hard  to  associate  the  very  melancholy  counte- 
nance shown  facing  page  66  with  a  tradition  of  youth 


Dress  of  the  New  England  Mothers         75 

and  beauty.  Had  the  portrait  been  painted  after  a 
romance  of  sorrow  came  to  this  young  maid,  Re- 
becca Rawson,  we  could  understand  her  expression ; 
but  it  was  painted  when  she  was  young  and  beauti- 
ful, so  beautiful  that  she  caught  the  eye  and  the 
wandering  affections  of  a  wandering  gentleman,  who 
announced  himself  as  the  son  of  one  nobleman  and 
kinsman  of  many  others,  and  persuaded  this  daughter 
of  Secretary  Edward  Rawson  to  marry  him,  which 
she  did  in  the  presence  of  forty  witnesses.  This 
young  married  pair  then  went  to  London,  where  the 
husband  deserted  Rebecca,  who  found  to  her  horror 
that  she  was  not  his  wife,  as  he  had  at  least  one 
English  wife  living.  Alone  and  proud,  Rebecca 
Rawson  supported  herself  and  her  child  by  painting 
on  glass;  and  when  at  last  she  set  out  to  return  to 
her  childhood's  home,  her  life  was  lost  at  sea  by 
shipwreck. 

The  portrait  of  another  Boston  woman  of  dis- 
tinction, Mrs.  Simeon  Stoddard,  is  given  facing  page 
76.  I  will  attempt  to  explain  who  Mrs.  Simeon 
Stoddard  was.  She  was  Mr.  Stoddard's  third 
widow  and  the  third  widow  also  of  Peter  Ser- 
geant, builder  of  the  Province  House.  Mr. 
Sergeant's  second  wife  had  been  married  twice 
before  she  married  him,  and  Simeon  Stoddard's 
father  had  four'  wives,  all  having  been  widows 
when  he  married  them.  Lastly,  our  Mrs.  Simeon 
Stoddard,  triumphing  over  death  and  this  galli- 
maufry of  Boston  widows,  took  a  fourth  hus- 
band, the  richest  merchant  in  town,  Samuel 
Shrimpton.      Having  had  in  all  four  husbands  of 


y6  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

wealth,  and  with  them  and  their  accumulation  of 
widows  there  must  have  been  as  a  widow's  mite  an 
immense  increment  and  inheritance  of  clothing  (for 
clothing  we  know  was  a  valued  bequest),  it  is  natural 
that  we  find  her  very  richly  dressed  and  with  a 
distinctly  haughty  look  upon  her  handsome  face  as 
becomes  a  conqueror  both  of  men  and  widows. 

The  straight,  lace  collar,  such  as  is  worn  by 
Madam  Padishal  and  shown  in  all  portraits  of 
this  date,  is,   I   believe,  a  whisk. 

The  whisk  was  a  very  interesting  and  to  us  a 
puzzling  article  of  attire,  through  the  lack  of  pre- 
cise description.  It  was  at  first  called  the  falling- 
whisk,  and  is  believed  to  have  been  simply  the 
handsome,  lace-edged,  stiff,  standing  collar  turned 
down  over  the  shoulders.  This  collar  had  been 
both  worn  with  the  ruff  and  worn  after  it,  and  had 
been  called  a  fall.  Quicherat  tells  that  the  "whisk" 
came  into  universal  use  in  1644,  when  very  low- 
necked  gowns  were  worn,  and  that  it  was  simply  a 
kerchief  or  fichu  to  cover  the  neck. 

We  have  a  few  side-lights  to  help  us,  as  to  the 
shape  of  the  whisk,  in  the  form  of  advertisements 
of  lost  whisks.  In  one  case  (1662)  it  is  "a  cambric 
whisk  with  Flanders  lace,  about  a  quarter  of  a  yard 
broad,  and  a  lace  turning  up  about  an  inch  broad, 
with  a  stock  in  the  neck  and  a  strap  hanging  down 
before."  And  in  1664  "A  Tiffany  Whisk  with  a 
great  Lace  down  and  a  little  one  up,  of  large 
Flowers,  and  open  work ;  with  a  Roul  for  the 
Head  and  Peak."  The  roll  and  peak  were  part 
of  a  cap. 


Mrs.  Simeon  Stoddard. 


Dress  of  the  New  England   Mothers         77 

These  portraits  show  whisks  in  slightly  varying 
forms.  We  have  the  "  broad  Lace  lying  down " 
in  the  handsome  band  at  the  shoulder;  the  "little 
lace  standing  up"  was  a  narrow  lace  edging  the 
whisk  at  the  throat  or  just  above  the  broad  lace. 
Sometimes  the  whisk  was  wholly  of  mull  or  lawn. 
The  whisk  was  at  first  wholly  a  part  of  woman's 
attire,  then  for  a  time  it  was  worn,  in  modified  form, 
by  men. 

Madam  Pepys  had  a  white  whisk  in  1660  and 
then  a  cc  noble  lace  whisk."  The  same  year  she 
bought  hers  in  London,  Governor  Berkeley  paid 
half  a  pound  for  a  tiffany  whisk  in  Virginia.  Many 
American  women,  probably  all  well-dressed  women, 
had  them.  They  are  also  seen  on  French  portraits 
of  the  day.  One  of  Madam  de  Maintenon  shows 
precisely  the  same  whisk  as  this  of  Madam  Padi- 
shal's,  tied  in  front  with  tiny  knots  of  ribbon. 

It  will  be  noted  that  Madam  Padishal  has  black 
lace  frills  about  the  upper  portion  of  the  sleeve,  at 
the  arm-scye.  English  portraits  previous  to  the  year 
1660  seldom  show  black  lace,  and  portraits  are  not 
many  of  the  succeeding  forty  years  which  have  black 
lace,  so  in  this  American  portrait  this  detail  is  un- 
usual. The  wearing  of  black  lace  came  into  a  short 
popularity  in  the  year  1660,  through  compliment  to 
the  Spanish  court  upon  the  marriage  of  the  young 
French  king,  Louis  XIV,  with  the  Infanta.  The 
English  court  followed  promptly.  Pepys  gloried  in 
"  our  Mistress  Stewart  in  black  and  white  lace."  It 
interests  me  to  see  how  quickly  American  women 
had  the  very  latest  court  fashions  and  wore  them 


71 


Two  Centuries  of  Costume 


even  in  uncourtlike  America;  such  distinct  novelties 
as  black  lace.  Contemporary  descriptions  of  dress 
are  silent  as  to  it  by  the  year  1700,  and  it  disappears 
from  portraits  until  a  century  later,  when  we  have 
pretty  black  lace  collars,  capes  and  fichus,  as  may  be 
seen  on  the  portraits  of  Mrs.  Sedgwick,  Mrs.  Waldo, 
and  others  later  in  this  book.  These  first  black  laces 
of  1660  are  Bayeux  laces,  which  are  precisely  like 


Ancient  Black  Lace. 

our  Chantilly  laces  of  to-day.  This  ancient  piece  of 
black  lace  has  been  carefully  preserved  in  an  old  New 
York  family.  A  portrait  of  the  year  1690  has  a 
black  lace  frill  like  the  Maltese  laces  of  to-day,  with 
the  same  guipure  pattern.  But  such  laces  were  not 
made  in  Malta  until  after  1833.  So  it  must  have 
been  a  guipure  lace  of  the  kind  known  in  England 
as  parchment  lace.  This  was  made  in  the  environs 
of  Paris,  but  was  seldom  black,  so  this  was  a  rare  bit. 
It  was  sometimes  made  of  gold  and  silver  thread. 
Parchment  lace  was  a  favorite  lace  of  Mary,  Queen 


Dress  of  the  New  England   Mothers         79 

of  Scots,  and  through  her  good  offices  was  peddled 
jn  England  by  French  lace-makers.  The  black 
moire  hoods  of  Italian  women  sometimes  had  a  nar- 
row edge  of  black  lace,  and  a  little  was  brought  to 
England  on  French  hoods,  but  as  a  whole  black  lace 
was  seldom  seen  or  known. 

An  evidence  of  the  widespread  extent  of  fashions 
even  in  that  day,  a  proof  that  English  and  French 
women  and  American  women  (when  American  women 
there  were  other  than  the  native  squaws)  all  dressed 
alike,  is  found  in  comparing  portraits.  An  interest- 
ing one  from  the  James  Jackson  Jarvis  Collection 
is  now  in  the  Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts.  It  is 
of  an  unknown  woman  and  by  an  unknown  artist, 
and  is  simply  labelled  "  Of  the  School  of  Susteman." 
But  this  unknown  Frenchwoman  has  a  dress  as  pre- 
cisely like  Madam  Padishal's  and  Madam  Stoddard's 
as  are  Doucet's  models  of  to-day  like  each  other. 
All  have  the  whisk  of  rich  straight-edged  lace,  and 
the  tiny  knots  of  velvet  ribbon.  All  have  the  sleeve 
knots,  but  the  French  portrait  is  gay  in  narrow  red 
and  buff  ribbon. 

Doubtless  many  have  formed  their  notion  of  Puri- 
tan dress  from  the  imaginary  pictures  of  several  pop- 
ular modern  artists.  It  can  plainly  be  seen  by  any 
one  who  examines  the  portraits  in  this  book  that 
they  are  little  like  these  modern  representations. 
The  single  figures  called  "  Priscilla"  and  "Rose 
Standish  "  are  well  known.  The  former  is  the  bet- 
ter in  costume,  and  could  the  close  dark  cloth  or 
velvet  hood  with  turned-back  band,  and  plain  linen 
edge  displayed  beneath,  be  exchanged  for  the  horse- 


8o  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

shoe  shaped  French  hood  which  was  then  and  many 
years  later  the  universal  head-wear,  the  verisimilitude 
would  be  increased.  This  hood  is  shown  on  the 
portraits  of  Madam  Rawson,  Madam  Stoddard,  Mis- 
tress Paddy,  and  others  in  this  book.  Rose  Stan- 
dish's  cap  is  a  very  pretty  one,  much  prettier  than 
the  French  hood,  but  I  do  not  find  it  like  any  cap 
in  English  portraits  of  that  day.  Nor  have  I  seen 
her  picturesque  sash.  I  do  not  deny  the  existence 
in  portraits  of  1620  of  this  cap  and  sash;  I  simply 
say  that  I  have  never  found  them  myself  in  the  hun- 
dreds of  English  portraits,  effigies,  etc.,  that  I  have 
examined. 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  women  in  the  modern 
pictures  all  wear  aprons.  I  think  this  is  correct  as 
they  are  drawn  in  their  everyday  dress,  but  it  will 
be  noted  that  none  of  these  portraits  display  an 
apron  ;  nor  was  an  apron  part  of  any  rich  dress  in 
the  seventeenth  century.  The  reign  of  the  apron 
had  been  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  it  came 
in  again  with  Anne.  Of  course  every  woman  in 
Massachusetts    used  aprons. 

Early  inventories  of  the  effects  of  emigrant  dames 
contain  many  an  item  of  those  housewifely  garments. 
Jane  Humphreys,  of  Dorchester,  Massachusetts,  had 
in  her  good  wardrobe,  in  1668,  "2  Blew  aprons,  A 
White  Holland  Apron  with  a  Small  Lace  at  the  bot- 
tom. A  White  Holland  Apron  with  two  breathes 
in  it.      My  best  white  apron.      My  greene  apron." 

In  the  pictures,  The  Return  of  the  Mayflower  and 
The  Pilgrim  Exiles,  the  masculine  dress  therein  dis- 
played is  very  close  to  that  of  the  real  men  of  the 


Dress  of  the  New  England   Mothers         81 

times.  The  great  power  of  these  pictures  is,  after 
all,  not  in  the  dress,  but  in  the  expression  of  the 
faces.  The  artist  has  portrayed  the  very  spirit  of 
pure  religious  feeling,  self-denial,  home-longing,  and 
sadness  of  exile  which  we  know  must  have  been 
imprinted  on  those  faces. 

The  lack  of  likeness  in  the  women's  dress  is  more 
through  difference  of  figure  and  carriage  and  an 
indescribable  cut  of  the  garments  than  in  detail, 
except  in  one  adjunct,  the  sleeve,  which  is  wholly  un- 
like the  seventeenth-century  sleeve  in  these  portraits. 
I  have  ever  deemed  the  sleeve  an  important  part  both 
of  a  man's  coat  and  a  woman's  gown.  The  tailor  in 
the  old  play,  The  Maid  of  the  Mill,  says,  "  O  Sleeve  ! 
O  Sleeve  !  I'll  study  all  night,  madam,  to  magnify 
your  sleeves  !  "  By  its  inelegant  shape  a  garment  may 
be  ruined.  By  its  grace  it  accents  the  beauty  of  other 
portions  of  the  apparel.  In  these  pictures  of  Puri- 
tan attire,  it  has  proved  able  to  make  or  mar  the 
likeness  to  the  real  dress.  It  is  now  a  component 
part  of  both  outer  and  inner  garment.  It  was  for- 
merly extraneous. 

In  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII,  the  sleeve  was  gen- 
erally a  separate  article  of  dress  and  the  most  gor- 
geous and  richly  ornamented  portion  of  the  dress. 
Outer  and  inner  sleeves  were  worn  by  both  men  and 
women,  for  their  doublets  were  sleeveless.  Eliza- 
beth gradually  banished  the  outer  hanging  sleeve, 
though  she  retained  the  detached  sleeve. 

Sleeves  had  grown  gravely  offensive  to  Puritans  ; 
the  slashing  was  excessive.  A  Massachusetts  stat- 
ute of  1634  specifies  that  "  No  man  or  woman  shall 


82  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

make  or  buy  any  slashed  clothes  other  than  one 
slash  in  each  sleeve  and  another  in  the  back.  Men 
and  women  shall  have  liberty  to  wear  out  such 
apparell  as  they  now  are  provided  of  except  the 
immoderate  great  sleeves  and  slashed  apparel." 

Size  and  slashes  were  both  held  to  be  a  waste  of 
good  cloth.  "Immoderate  great  sleeves"  could 
never  be  the  simple  coat  sleeve  with  cuff  in  which  our 
modern  artists  are  given  to  depicting  Virginian  and 
New  England  dames.  Doubtless 
the  general  shape  of  the  dress  was 
simple  enough,  but  the  sleeve  was 
the  only  part  which  was  not  close 
and  plain  and  unornamented.  I 
have  found  no  close  coat  sleeves 
with  cuffs  upon  any  old  American 
portraits.  I  recall  none  on  English 
portraits.  You  may  see  them, 
though  rarely,  in  England  under 
hanging  sleeves  upon  figures  which 
have  proved  valuable  conservators 
of  fashion,  albeit  sombre  of  design 
and  rigid  of  form,  namely,  effigies  in  stone  or  metal 
upon  old  tombs ;  these  not  after  the  year  1 620,  though 
these  are  really  a  small  "  leg-of-mutton  "  sleeve  be- 
ing gathered  into  the  arm-scye.  A  beautiful  brass  in 
a  church  on  the  Isle  of  Wight  is  dated  161 5.  This 
has  long,  hanging  sleeves  edged  with  leaflike  points 
of  cut-work  ;  cuffs  of  similar  work  turn  back  from 
the  wrists  of  the  undersleeves.  A  Satyr  by  Fitz- 
geffrey,  published  the  same  year,  complains  that  the 
wrists  of  women  and  men  are  closeed  with  bush- 


Dress  of  the  New  England  Mothers         83 

points,  ribbons,  or  rebato-twists.  "  Double  cufts  "  is 
an  entry  in  a  Plymouth  inventory  — which  explains 
itself.  In  the  hundreds  of  inventories  I  have  inves- 
tigated I  have  never  seen  half  a  dozen  entries  of 
cuffs.  The  two  or  three  I  have  found  have  been 
specified  as  "  lace  cuffs." 

George  Fox,  the  founder  of  Quakerism,  wrote 
with  a  vivid  pen  ;  one  of  his  own  followers  said  with 
severity,  "  He  paints  high."  Some  of  his  denuncia- 
tions of  the  dress  of  his  day  afford  a  very  good 
notion  of  the  peculiarities  of  contemporary  costume  ; 
though  he  may  be  read  with  this  caution  in  mind. 
He  writes  deploringly  of  women's  sleeves  (in  the 
year  1654) ;  it  will  be  noted  that  he  refers  to  double 
cuffs :  — 

"  The  women  having  their  cuffs  double  under  and  above, 
like  a  butcher  with  his  white  sleeves,  their  ribands  tied 
about  their  hands,  and  three  or  four  gold  laces  about  their 
clothes." 

There  were  three  generations  of  English  heralds 
named  Holme,  all  genealogists,  and  all  artists  ;  they 
have  added  much  to  our  knowledge  of  old  English 
dress.  Randle  Holme,  the  Chester  herald,  lived  in 
the  reign  of  Charles  II,  and  increased  a  collection  of 
manuscript  begun  by  his  grandfather  and  now  form- 
ing part  of  the  Harleian  Collection  in  the  British 
Museum.  He  wrote  also  the  Academy  of  Armoury ', 
published  in  1688,  and  made  a  vast  number  of 
drawings  for  it,  as  well  as  for  his  other  works.  His 
note-books  of  drawings  are  preserved.  In  one  of 
them  he  gives  drawings  of  the  sleeve  which  is  found 


Two   Centuries   of  Costume 


on  every  seventeenth-century  portrait  of  American 
women  which  I  have  ever  seen.  He  calls  this  a 
virago-sleeve.  It  was  worn  in  Queen  Elizabeth's 
day,  but  was  a  French  fashion.  It  is  gathered  very 
full   in   the  shoulder  and  again  at  the  wrist,  or  at 

the  forearm.  At  inter- 
vals between,  it  is  drawn 
in  by  gathering-strings 
of  narrow  ribbons,  or 
ferret,  which  are  tied  in  a 
pretty  knot  or  rose  on 
the  upper  part  of  the 
sleeve.  One  from  a 
French  portrait  is  given 
on  page  82.  Madam 
Ninon  de  l'Enclos  also 
wears  one.  This  gath- 
ering may  be  at  the  el- 
bow, forming  thus  two 
puffs,  or  there  may  be 
several  such  drawing- 
strings.  I  have  seen  a 
virago-sleeve  with  five 
puffs.  It  is  a  fine  deco- 
rative sleeve,  not  always 
shapely,  perhaps,  but  affording  in  the  pretty  knots 
of  ribbon  some  relief  to  the  severity  of  the  rest  of 
the  dress. 

Stubbes  wrote,  "  Some  have  sleeves  cut  up  the 
arm,  drawn  out  with  sundry  colours,  pointed  with 
silk  ribbands,  and  very  gallantly  tied  with  love 
knotts."       It  was  at  first  a  convention  of  fashion, 


Ninon  de  l'Enclos. 


Dress  of  the  New  England   Mothers         85 

and  it  lingered  long  in  some  modification,  that  wher- 
ever there  was  a  slash  there  was  a  knot  of  ribbon  or 
a  bunch  of  tags  or  aglets.  This  in  its  origin  was 
really  that  the  slash  might  be  tied  together.  Ribbon 
knots  were  much  worn ;  the  early  days  of  the  great 
court  of  Louis  XIV  saw  an  infinite  use  of  ribbons 
for  men  and  women.  When,  in  the  closing  years 
of  the  century,  rows  of  these  knots  were  placed  on 
either  side  of  the  stiff  busk  with  bars  of  ribbon 
forming  a  stomacher,  they  were  called  echelles,  lad- 
ders. The  Ladies'  Dictionary  (1694)  says  they  were 
"  much  in  request." 

This  virago-sleeve  was  worn  by  women  of  all 
ages  and  by  children,  both  boys  and  girls.  A  virago- 
sleeve  is  worn  by  Rebecca  Rawson  (facing  page  66), 
and  by  Mrs.  Simeon  Stoddard  (facing  page  76),  by 
Madam  Padishal  and  by  her  little  girl,  and  by  the 
Gibbes  child  shown  later  in  the  book. 

A  carved  figure  of  Anne  Stotevill  (1631)  is  in 
Westminster  Abbey.  Her  dress  is  a  rich  gown 
slightly  open  in  front  at  the  foot.  It  has  orna- 
mental hooks,  or  frogs,  with  a  button  at  each  end 
—  these  are  in  groups  of  three,  from  chin  to  toe. 
Four  groups  of  three  frogs  each,  on  both  sides, 
make  twenty-four,  thus  giving  forty-eight  buttons. 
A  stiff  ruff  is  at  the  neck,  and  similar  smaller  ones 
at  the  wrist.  She  wears  a  French  hood  with  a  loose 
scarf  over  it.  She  has  a  very  graceful  virago-sleeve 
with  handsome  knots  of  ribbon. 

It  is  certain  that  men's  sleeves  and  women's 
sleeves  kept  ever  close  company.  Neither  followed 
the  other:  they  walked  abreast.    If  a  woman's  sleeves 


86  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

were  broad  and  scalloped,  so  was  the  man's.  If  the 
man  had  a  tight  and  narrow  sleeve,  so  did  his  wife. 
When  women  had  virago-sleeves,  so  did  men.  Even 
in  the  nineteenth  century,  at  the  first  coming  of  leg- 
of-mutton  sleeves  in  1830  et  seq.,  dandies'  sleeves 
were  gathered  full  at  the  armhole.  In  the  second 
reign  of  these  vast  sleeves  a  few  years  ago,  man 
had  emancipated  himself  from  the  reign  of  woman's 
fashions,  and  his  sleeves  remained  severely  plain. 

Small  invoices  of  fashionable  clothing  were  con- 
stantly being  sent  across  seas.  There  were  sent  to 
and  from  England  and  other  countries  "ventures," 
which  were  either  small  lots  of  goods  sent  on  specu- 
lation to  be  sold  in  the  New  World,  or  a  small 
sum  given  by  a  private  individual  as  a  "  venture," 
with  instructions  to  purchase  abroad  anything  of 
interest  or  value  that  was  salable.  To  take  charge 
of  these  petty  commercial  transactions,  there  existed 
an  officer,  now  obsolete,  known  as  a  supercargo.  It 
is  told  that  one  Providence  ship  went  out  with  the 
ventures  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  neighbors  on 
board  —  that  is,  one  hundred  and  fifty  persons  had 
some  money  or  property  at  stake  on  the  trip.  Three 
hundred  ventures  were  placed  with  another  super- 
cargo. Sometimes  women  sent  sage  from  their 
gardens,  or  ginseng  if  they  could  get  it.  A  bunch 
of  sage  paid  in  China  for  a  porcelain  tea-set.  Along 
the  coast,  women  ventured  food-supplies,  —  cheese, 
eggs,  butter,  dried  apples,  pickles,  even  hard  ginger- 
bread ;  another  sent  a  barrel  of  cider  vinegar. 
Clothes  in  small  lots  were  constantly  being  bought 
and  sold  on  a  venture.     From  London,  in  Novem- 


A. 

s. 

I 

6 

8 

10 

i 

12 

6 

10 

3 

10 

Dress  of  the  New  England   Mothers        87 

ber,  1667,  Walter  Banesely  sent  as  a  venture  to 
William  Pitkin  in  Hartford  these  articles  of  cloth- 
ing with  their  prices  :  — 

"  1   Paire   Pinck  Colour'd  mens  hose       .      .      . 
10       "      Mens     Silke  Hose,  ijs  per  pair    . 

2       «     Womens  "       "     16s    "       "       .      . 
10       "  "  Green  Hose 

I    Pinck  Colour'd  Stomacher  made  of  Knotts 

I    Pinck  Colour'd  Wastcote 

A  Black  Sute  of  Padisuay.      Hatt, 
Hatt  band,  Shoo  knots  &  trunk. 

The  wastcote  and  stomacher  are  a 

Venture  of  my  wife's ;  the  Silke  Stockens  mine  own." 

There  remains  another  means  of  information  of 
the  dress  of  Puritan  women  in  what  was  the  nearest 
approach  to  a  collection  of  fashion-plates  which  the 
times  afforded. 

In  the  year  1640  a  collection  of  twenty-six  pic- 
tures of  Englishwomen  was  issued  by  one  Wen- 
ceslas  Hollar,  an  engraver  and  drawing-master,  with 
this  title,  Ornatus  Muliebris  Anglicanus.  The  several! 
Habits  of  Englishwomen,  from  the  Nobilitie  to  the 
Country  Woman  As  they  are  in  these  Times.  These 
bear  the  same  relation  to  portraits  showing  what 
was  really  worn,  as  do  fashion-plates  to  photographs. 
They  give  us  the  shapes  of  gowns,  bonnets,  etc., 
yet  are  not  precisely  the  real  thing.  The  value 
of  this  special  set  is  found  in  three  points  :  First,  the 
drawings  confirm  the  testimony  of  Lely,  Van  Dyck, 
and  other  artists  ;  they  prove  how  slightly  Van  Dyck 
idealized  the  costume  of  his  sitters.    Second,  they  give 


88  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

representations  of  folk  in  the  lower  walks  of  life  ; 
such  folk  were  not  of  course  depicted  in  portraits. 
Third,  the  drawings  are  full  length,  which  the  por- 
traits are  not.      Four  of  these  drawings  are  reduced 


Lady  Catharina  Howard. 

facing  page  96.  I  give  on  page  142  the  one  entitled 
The  Puritan  Woman^  though  it  is  one  of  the  most 
disappointing  in  the  whole  collection.  It  is  such 
a  negative  presentation ;  so  little  marked  detail  or 
even  associated  evidence  is  gained  from  it.  I  had 
a  baffled  thought  after  examining  it  that  I  knew  less 


Dress  of  the  New  England  Mothers         89 

of  Puritan  dress  than  without  it.  I  see  that  they 
gather  up  their  gowns  for  walking  after  a  mode 
known  in  later  years  as  washerwoman  style.  And 
by  that  very  gathering  up  we  lose  what  the  drawing 
might  have  told  us  ;  namely,  how  the  gowns  were 
shaped  in  the  back ;  how  attached  to  the  waist  or 
bodice  ;  and  how  the  bodice  was  shaped  at  the  waist, 
whether  it  had  a  straight  belt,  whether  it  was  pointed, 
whether  slashed  in  tabs  or  laps  like  a  samare.  The 
sleeve,  too,  is  concealed,  and  the  kerchief  hides 
everything  else.  We  know  these  kerchiefs  were  worn 
among  the  "  fifty  other  ways,"  for  some  portraits 
have  them  ;  but  the  whisk  was  far  more  common. 
Lady  Catharina  Howard,  aged  eleven  in  the  year 
1646,  was  drawn  by  Hollar  in  a  kerchief. 

There  had  been  some  change  in  the  names  of 
women's  attire  in  twenty  years,  since  1600,  when 
the  catalogue  of  the  Queen's  wardrobe  was  made. 
Exclusive  of  the  Coronation,  Garter,  Parliament,  and 
mourning  robes,  it  ran  thus  :  — 

"  Robes.  Petticoats. 

French  gowns.  Cloaks. 

Round  gowns.  Safeguards. 

Loose  gowns.  Jupes. 

Kirtles.  Doublets. 

Foreparts.  Lap  mantles." 

In  her  New  Year's  gifts  were  also,  "  stray t- 
bodyed  gowns,  trayn-gowns,  waist-robes,  night  rayls, 
shoulder  cloaks,  inner  sleeves,  round  kirtles."  She 
also  had  nightgowns  and  jackets,  and  underwear, 
hose,  and  various  forms  of  foot-gear. 


90  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

Many  of  these  garments  never  came  to  America. 
Some  came  under  new  names.  Many  quickly  dis- 
appeared from  wardrobes.  I  never  read  in  early 
American  inventories  of  robes,  either  French  robes 
or  plain  robes.  Round  gowns,  loose  gowns,  petti- 
coats, cloaks,  safeguards,  lap  mantles,  sleeves,  night- 
gowns, nightrails,and  night-jackets  continued  in  wear. 

I  have  never  found  the  word  forepart  in  this 
distinctive  signification  nor  the  word  kirtle ;  though 
our  modern  writers  of  historical  novels  are  most  lib- 
eral of  kirtles  to  their  heroines.  It  is  a  pretty,  quaint 
name,  and  ought  to  have  lingered  with  us ;  but 
"what  a  deformed  thief  this  Fashion  is  "  — it  will 
not  leave  with  us  garment  or  name  that  we  like 
simply  because  it  pleases  us. 

Doublets  were  worn  by  women. 

"  The  Women  also  have  doublets  and  Jerkins  as  men 
have,  buttoned  up  the  brest,  and  made  with  Wings,  Welts 
and  Pinions  on  shoulder  points  as  men's  apparell  is  for  all 
the  world,  &  though  this  be  a  kind  of  attire  appropriate  only 
to  Man  yet  they  blush  not  to  wear  it." 

Anne  Hibbins,  the  witch,  had  a  black  satin  doub- 
let among  other  substantial  attire. 

A  fellow-barrister  of  Governor  John  Winthrop, 
Sergeant  Erasmus  Earle,  a  most  uxorious  husband, 
was  writing  love-letters  to  his  wife  Frances,  who  lived 
out  of  London,  at  the  same  time  that  Winthrop  was 
writing  to  Margaret  Winthrop.  Earle  was  much 
concerned  over  a  certain  doublet  he  had  ordered  for 
his  wife.  He  had  bought  the  blue  bayes  for  this 
garment  in  two    pieces,  and    he   could    not    decide 


Dress  of  the  New  England  Mothers        91 

whether  the  shorter  piece  should  go  into  the  sleeve 
or  the  body,  whether  it  should  have  skirts  or  not. 
If  it  did  not,  then  he  had  bought  too  much  silver 
lace,  which  troubled  him  sorely. 

Margaret  Winthrop  had  better  instincts  ;  to  her 
husband's  query  as  to  sending  trimming  for  her 
doublet  and  gown,  she  answers,  "  When  I  see  the 
cloth  I  will  send  word  what  trimming  will  serve ;  " 
and  she  writes  to  London,  insisting  on  "  the  civilest 
fashion  now  in  use,"  and  for  Sister  Downing,  who  is 
still  in  England,  to  give  Tailor  Smith  directions 
"  that  he  may  make  it  the  better."  Mr.  Smith  sent 
scissors  and  a  hundred  needles  and  the  like  homely 
gifts  across  seas  as  "  tokens  "  to  various  members  of 
the  Winthrop  household,  showing  his  friendly  inti- 
macy with  them  all.  For  many  years  after  America 
was  settled  we  find  no  evidence  that  women's  gar- 
ments were  ever  made  by  mantua-makers.  All  the 
bills  which  exist  are  from  tailors.  One  of  William 
Sweatland  for  work  done  for  Jonathan  Corwin  of 
Salem  is  in  the  library  of  the  American  Antiquarian 
Society  :  — 

£      s.     d. 
"  Sept.  29,  1679.    To  plaiting  a  gown  for  Mrs.  3       6 

To  makeing  a  Childs  Coat 6 

To  makeing  a  Scarlet  petticoat  with  Silver 

Lace  for  Mrs 9 

For  new  makeing  a  plush  somar  for  Mrs   .  6 

Dec.  22,  1679.      For  makeing  a  somar  for 

your  Maide 10 

Mar.  10,  1679.    To  a  yard  of  Callico  .      .  2 

To  1  Douzen  and  y2  of  silver  buttons       .  1       6 

To  Thread 4 


92  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

£  *• 
To  makeing  a  broad  cloth  hatte  ....  14 
To  makeing  a  haire  Camcottcoat    ....  9 

To  makeing  new  halfsleeves  to  a  silk  Coascett  1 

March  25.    To  altering  and  fitting  a  paire  of 

Stays  for  Mrs 1 

Ap.  2,  1 680,  to  makeing  a  Gowne  for  ye  Maide       1  o 
May  20.    For  removing  buttons  of  yr  coat     . 
Juli  25,  1630.    For  makeing  two  Hatts  and 

Jacketts  for  your  two  sonnes  ....         19 
Aug.    14.    To  makeing  a  white  Scarsonnett 

plaited  Gowne  for  Mrs 8 

To  makeing  a  black  broad  cloth  Coat  for  your- 

selfe 9 

Sept.  3,  1868.     To    makeing  a  Silke    Laced 

Gowne  for  Mrs 1      8 

Oct.    7,    i860,  to   makeing  a  Young   Childs 

Coate 4 

To  faceing  your  Owne  Coat  Sleeves    ...  1 

To  new  plaiting  a  petty  Coat  for  Mrs.      .      .  1 

Nov.    7.     To  makeing  a  black  broad  Cloth 

Gowne   for  Mrs 18 

Feb.  26,  1680-1.    To  Searing  a   Petty  Coat 

for  Mrs 6 


Sum  is,  £8     45.  lod." 

From  many  bills  and  inventories  we  learn  that  the 
time  of  the  settlement  of  Plymouth  and  Boston 
reached  a  transitional  period  in  women's  dress  as  it 
did  in  men's.  Mrs.  Winthrop  had  doublets  as  had 
Governor  Winthrop,  but  I  think  her  daughter  wore 
gowns  when  her  sons  wore  coats.  The  doublet  for 
a  woman  was  shaped  like  that  of  a  man,  and  was  of 
double  thickness  like  a  man's.     It  might  be  sleeve- 


Dress  of  the  New  England  Mothers        93 

less,  with  a  row  of  welts  or  wings  around  the  armhole  ; 
or  if  it  had  sleeves  the  welts,  or  a  roll  or  cap,  still  re- 
mained. The  trimming  of  the  arm-scye  was  universal, 
both  for  men  and  women.  A  fuller  description  of 
the  doublet  than  has  ever  before  been  written  will  be 
given  in  the  chapter  upon  the  Evolution  of  the  Coat. 
The  "  somar  "  which  is  the  samare,  named  also  in 
the  bill  of  the  Salem  tailor,  seems  to  have  been  a 
Dutch  garment,  and  was  so  much  worn  in  New  York 
that  I  prefer  to  write  of  it  in  the  following  chapter. 
We  are  then  left  with  the  gown  ;  the  gown  which 
took  definite  shape  in  Elizabeth's  day.  Of  course 
no  one  could  describe  it  like  Stubbes.  I  frankly 
confess  my  inability  to  approach  him.  Read  his 
words,  so  concise  yet  full  of  color  and  conveying 
detail ;  I  protest  it  is  wonderful. 

"  Their  Gowns  be  no  less  famous,  some  of  silk  velvet 
grogram  tafFety  fine  cloth  of  forty  shillings  a  yard.  But 
if  the  whole  gown  be  not  silke  or  velvet  then  the  same 
shall  be  layed  with  lace  two  or  three  fingers  broade  all  over 
the  gowne  or  the  most  parte.  Or  if  not  so  (as  Lace  is 
not  fine  enough  sometimes)  then  it  must  be  garded  with 
great  gardes  of  costly  Lace,  and  as  these  gowns  be  of 
sundry  colours  so  they  be  of  divers  fashions  changing  with 
the  Moon.  Some  with  sleeves  hanging  down  to  their 
skirts,  trayling  on  the  ground,  and  cast  over  the  shoulders 
like  a  cow's  tayle.  These  have  sleeves  much  shorter,  cut 
up  the  arme,  and  pointed  with  Silke-ribons  very  gallantly 
tyed  with  true  loves  knottes  —  (for  soe  they  call  them). 
Some  have  capes  fastened  down  to  the  middist  of  their 
backs,  faced  with  velvet  or  else  with  some  fine  wrought 
silk  TafFeetie  at  the  least,  and  fringed  about  Bravelv,  and 


94 


Two  Centuries  of  Costume 


(to  sum  up  all  in  a  word)  some  are  pleated  and  ryveled  down 
the  back  wonderfully  with  more  knacks  than  I  can  declare." 

The  guards  of  lace  a  finger  broad  laid  on  over 
the  seams  of  the  gown  are  described  by  Pepys  in 
his  day.  He  had  some  of  these  guards  of  gold  lace 
taken  from  the  seams  of  one  of  his  wife's  old  gowns 
to  overlay  the  seams  of  one  of  his  own  cassocks  and 
rig  it  up  for  wear,  just  as  he  took  his  wife's  old 
muff,  like  a  thrifty  husband,  and  bought  her  a 
new  muff,  like  a  kind  one.  Not  such  a  domestic 
frugalist  was  he,  though,  as  his  contemporary,  the 
great  political  economist,  Dudley  North,  Baron 
Guildford,  Lord  Sheriff  of  London,  who  loved  to 
sit  with  his  wife  ripping  off  the  old  guards  of  lace 
from  her  gown,  "unpicking"  her  gown,  he  called 
it,  and  was  not  at  all  secret  about  it.  Both  men 
walked  abroad  to  survey  the  gems  and  guards  worn 
by  their  neighbors'  wives,  and  to  bring  home  word 
of  new  stuffs,  new  trimmings,  to  their  own  wives. 
Really  a  seventeenth-century  husband  was  not  so 
bad.  Note  in  my  Life  of  Margaret  IVinthrop  how 
Winthrop's  fellow-barrister,  Sergeant  Erasmus  Earle, 
bought  camlet  and  lace,  and  patterns  for  doublets  for 
his  wife  Frances  Fontayne,  and  ran  from  London 
clothier  to  London  mantua-maker,  and  then  to  Lon- 
don haberdasher  and  London  tailor,  to  learn  the 
newest  weaves  of  cloth,  the  newest  drawing  in  of  the 
sleeves.  I  know  no  nineteenth-century  husband  of 
that  name  who  would  hunt  materials  and  sleeve  pat- 
terns, and  buy  doublet  laces  and  find  gown-guards 
for  his  wife.     And  then  the  gown  sleeves  !     What 


Dress  of  the  New  England  Mothers         95 

a  description  by  Stubbes  of  the  virago-sleeve  "  tied 
in  and  knotted  with  silk  ribbons  in  love-knots  !  " 
It  is  all  wonderful  to  read. 

We  learn  from  these  tailors'  bills  that  tailors' 
work  embraced  far  more  articles  than  to-day  ;  in 
the  Orbis  Sensualium  Pictus,  1659,  a  tailor's  shop  has 
hanging  upon  the  wall  woollen  hats,  breeches,  waist- 
coats, jackets,  women's  cloaks,  and  petticoats.  There 
are  also  either  long  hose  or  lasts  for  stretching  hose, 
for  they  made  stockings,  leggins,  gaiters,  buskins  ; 
also  a  number  of  boxes  which  look  like  muff-boxes. 
One  tailor  at  work  is  seated  upon  a  platform  raised 
about  a  foot  from  the  floor.  His  seat  is  a  curious 
bench  with  two  legs  about  two  feet  long  and  two 
about  one  foot  long.  The  base  of  the  two  long  legs 
are  on  the  floor,  the  other  two  set  upon  the  platform. 
The  tailor's  feet  are  on  the  platform,  thus  his  work 
is  held  well  up  before  his  face.  Sometimes  his  legs 
are  crossed  upon  the  platform  in  front  of  him.  The 
platform  was  necessary,  or,  at  any  rate,  advisable  for 
another  reason.  The  habits  of  Englishmen  at  that 
time,  their  manners  and  customs,  I  mean,  were  not 
tidy ;  and  floors  were  very  dirty.  Any  garment 
resting  on  the  floor  would  have  been  too  soiled  for 
a  gentleman's  wear  before  it  was  donned  at  all. 

I  have  discovered  one  thing  about  old-time  tailors, 
—  they  were  just  as  trying  as  their  successors,  and  had 
as  many  tricks  of  trade.  A  writer  in  1582  says, "If 
a  tailor  makes  your  gown  too  little,  he  covers  his 
fault  with  a  broad  stomacher;  if  too  great,  with  a 
number  of  pleats  ;  if  too  short,  with  a  fine  guard ; 
if  too  long  with  a  false  gathering." 


96  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

In  several  of  the  household  accounts  of  colonial 
dames  which  I  have  examined  I  have  found  the  prices 
and  items  very  confusing  and  irregular  when  com- 
pared with  tailors'  bills  and'  descriptive  notes  and 
letters  accompanying  them.  And  in  one  case  I  was 
fain  to  believe  that  the  lady's  account-book  had  been 
kept  upon  the  plan  devised  by  the  simple  Mrs. 
Pepys,  —  a  plan  which  did  anger  her  spouse  Samuel 
"  most  mightily."  He  was  filled  with  admiration 
of  her  household-lists  —  her  kitchen  accounts.  He 
admired  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  word  "  admire  "  ; 
then  he  admired  in  the  old-time  meaning — of  sus- 
picious wonder.  For  albeit  she  could  do  through 
his  strenuous  teaching  but  simple  sums  in  "  Arith- 
metique,"  had  never  even  attempted  long  division, 
yet  she  always  rendered  to  her  husband  perfectly 
balanced  accounts,  month  after  month.  At  last,  to 
his  angry  queries,  she  whimpered  that  "  whenever 
she  doe  misse  a  sum  of  money,  she  do  add  some 
sums  to  other  things,"  till  she  made  it  perfectly  cor- 
rect in  her  book  —  a  piece  of  such  simple  duplicity 
that  I  wonder  her  husband  had  not  suspected  it 
months  before.  And  she  also  revealed  to  him  that 
she  "  would  lay  aside  money  for  a  necklace "  by 
pretending  to  pay  more  for  household  supplies  than 
she  really  had,  and  then  tying  up  the  extra  amount 
in  a  stocking  foot.  He  writes,  "  I  find  she  is  very 
cunning  and  when  she  makes  least  show  hath  her 
wits  at  work ;  and  so  to  my  office  to  my  accounts." 


"cW 

f'i 

-  ~'\^JL 

fit 

[  1 1  ifi 
11 '» 

Pi 

_  _^ 

•  j  -   m  ir-HfLm 

1  '■    ■    m  ^ISfSpfS-? 

Costumes  of  Englishwomen  of  the  Seventeenth  Century. 


CHAPTER   III 

ATTIRE    OF    VIRGINIA     DAMES    AND    THEIR    NEIGHBORS 

"  Two  things  I  love,  two  usual/  thinges  they  are  : 
The  Firste,  New-fashioned  cloaths  I  love  to  wear, 
Newe  Tires,  newe  Ruffes  ;   aye,  and  newe  Gestures  too 
In  all  newe  Fashions  1  do  love  to  goe. 

The  Second  Thing  I  love  is  this,  I  zveene 

To  ride  aboute  to  have  those  Newe  Cloaths  seene. 

"  At  every  Gossipping  I  am  at  still 
And  ever  wilbe  —  maye  I  have  my  will. 
For  at  ones  own  Home,  praie  —  who  is't  can  see 
How  fyne  in  new-found  fashioned  Tyres  ive  bee? 
Vnless  our  Husbands  —  Faith  !   but  very  feiue  !  — 
And  whoo'd  goe  gaie,  to  please  a  Husband's  view  ? 
Alas  !  wee  wives  doe  take  but  small  Delight 
If  none  (besides  our  husbands)  see  that  Sight" 

—  "  The  Gossipping  Wives  Complaint,"  1611  (circa). 


VOL.  I  —  H 


CHAPTER   III 

ATTIRE    OF    VIRGINIA    DAMES    AND    THEIR    NEIGHBORS 

T  is  a  matter  of  deep  regret  that  no 
"Lists  of  Apparel"  were  made  out 
for  the  women  emigrants  in  any  of  the 
colonies.  Doubtless  many  came  who 
had  a  distinct  allotment  of  clothing, 
among  them  the  redemptioners.  We  know  one  case, 
that  of  the"  Casket  Girls,"of  Louisiana,  where  a  group 
of  "  virtuous,  modest,  well-carriaged  young  maids  " 
each  had  a  casket  or  box  of  clothing  supplied  to  her 
as  part  of  her  payment  for  emigration.  I  wish  we 
had  these  lists,  not  that  I  should  deem  them  of 
great  value  or  accuracy  in  one  respect  since  they 
would  have  been  made  out  naturally  by  men,  but 
because  I  should  like  to  read  the  struggles  of  the 
average  shipping-clerk  or  supercargo,  or  even  ship- 
ping-master or  company's  president,  over  the  items 
of  women's  dress.  One  reason  why  the  lists  we 
have  in  the  court  records  are  so  wildly  spelled  and 
often  vague  is,  I  am  sure,  because  the  recording- 
clerks  were  always  men.  Such  hopeless  puzzles  as 
droll  or  drowlas,  cale  or  caul  or  kail,  chatto  or 
shadow,  shabbaroon  or  chaperone,  have  come  to  us 
through  these  poor  struggling  gentlemen. 

99 


ioo  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

There  are  not  to  my  knowledge  any  portraits  in 
existence  of  the  wives  of  the  first  Dutch  settlers  of 
New  Netherland.  They  would  have  been  dressed, 
I  am  sure,  in  the  full  dress  of  Holland  vrouws.  We 
can  turn  to  the  court  records  of  New  Netherland 
to  learn  the  exact  item  of  the  dress  of  the  settlers. 
Let  me  give  in  full  this  inventory  of  an  exceptionally 
rich  and  varied  wardrobe  of  Madam  Jacob  de  Lange 
of  New  Amsterdam,  1662  :  — 

£    s.      d. 
One  under  petticoat  with  a  body  of  red  bay       .      1      7 

One  under  petticoat,  scarlet 1    15 

One  petticoat,  red  cloth  with  black  lace        .      .      215 
One  striped  stuff  petticoat  with  black  lace          .      1      8 
Two  colored  drugget   petticoats   with  gray  lin- 
ings       1      2 

Two    colored    drugget    petticoats    with     white 

linings 18 

One  colored  drugget  petticoat  with  pointed 

lace 8 

One    black    silk    petticoat    with    ash   gray    silk 

lining 1    10 

One    potto-foo    silk    petticoat    with    black  silk 

lining 2    15 

One  potto-foo  silk  petticoat  with  taffeta  lining        1    13 
One  silk  potoso-a-samare  with  lace     ....      3 

One  tartanel  samare  with  tucker 1    10 

One  black  silk  crape  samare  with  tucker     .      .      1    10 

Three  flowered  calico  samares 217 

Three  calico  nightgowns,  one  flowered,  two  red  7 

One  silk  waistcoat,  one  calico  waistcoat        .      .  14 

One  pair  of  bodices 4 

Five  pair  white  cotton  stockings    .  9 

Three  black  love-hoods 5 


Attire  of  Virginia  Dames  101 

£    '■      * 

One  white  love-hood 26 

Two  pair  sleeves  with  great  lace 1      3 

Four  cornet  caps  with  lace 3 

One  black  silk  rain  cloth  cap 10 

One  black  plush  mask 16 

Four  yellow  lace  drowlas 2 

This  is  a  most  interesting  list  of  garments.  The 
sleeves  with  great  lace  must  from  their  price  have 
been  very  rich  articles  of  dress.  The  yellow  lace 
drowlas,  since  there  were  four  of  them  (and  no  other 
neckerchiefs,  such  as  gorgets,  piccadillies,  or  whisks 
are  named),  must  have  been  neckwear  of  some 
form.  I  suspect  they  are  the  lace  drowls  or  drolls 
to  which  I  refer  in  a  succeeding  chapter  on  A 
Vain  Puritan  Grandmother.  The  rain  cloth  cap 
of  black  silk  is  curious  also,  being  intended  to 
wear  over  another  cap  or  a  love-hood.  The  cornet 
caps  with  lace  are  a  Dutch  fashion.  The  "lace" 
was  in  the  form  of  lappets  or  pinners  which  flapped 
down  at  the  side  of  the  face  over  the  ears  and 
almost  over  the  cheeks.  Evelyn  speaks  of  a  woman 
in  "a  cornet  with  the  upper  pinner  dangling  about 
her  cheeks  like  hound's  ears."  Cotgrave  tells  in 
rather  vague  definition  that  a  cornet  is  "  a  fashion  of 
Shadow  or  Boone  Grace  used  in  old  time  and  to  this 
day  by  old  women."  It  was  not  like  a  bongrace, 
nor  like  the  cap  I  always  have  termed  a  shadow, 
but  it  had  two  points  like  broad  horns  or  ears  with 
lace  or  gauze  spread  over  both  and  hanging  from 
these  horns.  Cornets  and  corneted  caps  are  often 
in    Dutch    inventories    in   early    New   York.     And 


io2  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

they  can  be  seen  in  old  Dutch  pictures.  They 
were  one  of  the  few  distinctly  Dutch  modes  that 
lingered  in  New  Netherland  ;  but  by  the  third  gen- 
eration from  the  settlement  they  had  disappeared. 


Mrs.  Livingstone. 

What  the  words  "  potto-foo  "  and  "  potoso-a-sa- 
mare  "  mean  I  cannot  decipher.  I  have  tried  to  find 
Dutch  words  allied  in  sound  but  in  vain.  I  be- 
lieve the  samare  was  a  Dutch  fashion.  We  rarely 
find  samares  worn  in  Virginia  and  Maryland,  but 
the  name  frequently  occurs  in  the  first  Dutch  in- 
ventories in  New  Netherland  and  occasionally  in  the 


Attire  of  Virginia  Dames  103 

Connecticut  valley,  where  there  were  a  few  Dutch 
settlers ;  occasionally  also  in  Plymouth,  whose  first 
settlers  had  been  for  a  number  of  years  under 
Dutch  influences  in  Holland;  and  rarely  in  Salem 
and  Boston,  whose  planters  also  had  felt  Dutch  in- 
fluences through  the  settling  in  Essex  and  Suffolk 
of  opulent  Flemish  and  Dutch  "  clothiers  "  —  cloth- 
workers.  These  Dutchmen  had  married  English- 
women, and  their  presence  in  English  homes  was 
distinctly  shown  by  the  use  then  and  to  the  present 
day  of  Dutch  words,  Dutch  articles  of  dress,  furni- 
ture, and  food.  From  these  Dutch-settled  shires  of 
Essex  and  Suffolk  came  John  Winthrop  and  all  the 
so-called  Bay  Emigration. 

I  am  convinced  that  a  samare  was  a  certain  gar- 
ment which  I  have  seen  in  French,  Dutch,  and 
English  portraits  of  the  day.  It  is  a  tight-fitting 
jacket  or  waist  or  bodice  —  call  it  what  you  will ;  its 
skirt  or  portion  "below  the  belt-line  is  four  to  eight 
inches  deep,  cut  up  in  tabs  or  oblong  flaps,  four  on 
each  side.  These  slits  are  to  the  belt  line.  It  is, 
to  explain  further,  a  basque,  tight-fitting  or  with  the 
waist  laid  in  plaits,  and  with  the  basque  skirt  cut  in 
eight  tabs.  These  laps  or  tabs  set  out  rather  stiffly 
and  squarely  over  the  full-gathered  petticoats  of  the 
day. 

I  turn  to  a  Dutch  dictionary  for  a  definition  of  the 
word  "  samare,"  though  my  Dutch  dictionary  being 
of  the  date  1735  is  too  recent  a  publication  to  be 
of  much  value.  In  it  a  samare  is  defined  simplv 
as  a  woman's  gown.  Randle  Holme  says,  rather 
vaguely,  that  it  is  a  short  jacket  for  women's  wear 


104  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

with  four  side-laps,  reaching  to  the  knees.  In  this 
rich  wardrobe  of  the  widow  De  Lange,  twelve  petti- 
coats are  enumerated  and  no  overdress-jacket  or 
doublet  of  any  kind  except  those  samares.  Their 
price  shows  that  they  were  not  a  small  garment. 
One  "silk  potoso-a-samare  with  lace"  was  worth 
^3.  One  "  tartanel  samare  with  tucker  "  was  worth 
^1  ioj.  One  "  black  silk  crape  samare  with  tucker  " 
was  worth  J~i  ioj.,  and  three  "flowered  calico" 
samares  were  worth  .£1  ioj.  They  were  evidently 
of  varying  weights  for  summer  and  winter  wear,  and 
were  worn  over  the  rich  petticoat. 

The  bill  of  the  Salem  tailor,  William  Sweatland 
(1679),  shows  that  he  charged  gs.  for  making  a 
scarlet  petticoat  with  silver  lace;  for  making  a 
black  broadcloth  gown  iSs.;  while  "  new-makeing 
a  plush  somar  for  Mrs  "  (which  was  making  over) 
was  6s. ;  "  making  a  somar  for  your  Maide "  was 
ioj.,  which  was  the  same  price  he  charged  for 
making  a  gown  for  the  maid. 

The  colors  in  the  Dutch  gowns  were  uniformly 
gay.  Madam  Cornelia  de  Vos  in  a  green  cloth  pet- 
ticoat, a  red  and  blue  "Haarlamer"  waistcoat,  a 
pair  of  red  and  yellow  sleeves,  a  white  cornet  cap, 
green  stockings  with  crimson  clocks,  and  a  purple 
"  Pooyse "  apron  was  a  blooming  flower-bed  of 
color. 

I  fear  we  have  unconsciously  formed  our  mental 
pictures  of  our  Dutch  forefathers  through  the  vivid 
descriptions  of  Washington  Irving.  We  certainly 
cannot  improve  upon  his  account  of  the  Dutch 
housewife  of  New  Amsterdam  :  — 


Mrs.  Magdalen  Beekman. 


Attire  of  Virginia  Dames  105 

"  Their  hair,  untortured  by  the  abominations  of  art, 
was  scrupulously  pomatumed  back  from  their  foreheads 
with  a  candle,  and  covered  with  a  little  cap  of  quilted  cal- 
ico, which  fitted  exactly  to  their  heads.  Their  petticoats 
of  linsey-woolsey  were  striped  with  a  variety  of  gorgeous 
dyes,  though  I  must  confess  those  gallant  garments  were 
rather  short,  scarce  reaching  below  the  knee ;  but  then 
they  made  up  in  the  number,  which  generally  equalled  that 
of  the  gentlemen's  small-clothes  ;  and  what  is  still  more 
praise-worthy,  they  were  all  of  their  own  manufacture, — 
of  which  circumstance,  as  may  well  be  supposed,  they 
were  not  a  little   vain. 

"  Those  were  the  honest  days,  in  which  every  woman 
stayed  at  home,  read  the  Bible,  and  wore  pockets,  —  ay, 
and  that,  too,  of  a  goodly  size,  fashioned  with  patchwork 
into  many  curious  devices,  and  ostentatiously  worn  on  the 
outside.  These,  in  fact,  were  convenient  receptacles  where 
all  good  housewives  carefully  stored  away  such  things  as 
they  wished  to  have  at  hand  ;  by  which  means  they  often 
came  to  be  incredibly  crammed. 

"  Besides  these  notable  pockets,  they  likewise  wore  scis- 
sors and  pincushions  suspended  from  their  girdles  by  red 
ribbons,  or,  among  the  more  opulent  and  showy  classes, 
by  brass  and  even  silver  chains,  indubitable  tokens  of 
thrifty  housewives  and  industrious  spinsters.  I  cannot  say 
much  in  vindication  of  the  shortness  of  the  petticoats  ;  it 
doubtless  was  introduced  for  the  purpose  of  giving  the 
stockings  a  chance  to  be  seen,  which  were  generally  of 
blue  worsted,  with  magnificent  red  clocks  ;  or  perhaps  to 
display  a  well-turned  ankle  and  a  neat  though  serviceable 
foot,  set  off  by  a  high-heeled  leathern  shoe,  with  a  large 
and  splendid  silver  buckle. 

"  There  was  a  secret  charm  in  those  petticoats,  which 
no  doubt  entered  into  the  consideration  of  the  prudent  gal- 
lants.     The  wardrobe  of  a  lady  was  in  those  days  her  only 


106  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

fortune  ;  and  she  who  had  a  good  stock  of  petticoats  and 
stockings  was  as  absolutely  an  heiress  as  is  a  Kamtschatka 
damsel  with  a  store  of  bear-skins,  or  a  Lapland  belle  with 
plenty  of  reindeer." 

A  Boston  lady,  Madam  Knights,  visiting  New 
York  in    1704,  wrote  also   with   clear  pen:  — 

"  The  English  go  very  fashionable  in  their  dress.  But 
the  Dutch,  especially  the  middling  sort,  differ  from  our 
women,  in  their  habitt  go  loose,  wear  French  muches  wch 
are  like  a  Capp  and  headband  in  one,  leaving  their  ears 
bare,  which  are  sett  out  with  Jewells  of  a  large  size  and 
many  in  number;  and  their  fingers  hoop't  with  rings,  some 
with  large  stones  in  them  of  many  Coullers,  as  were  their 
pendants  in  their  ears,  which  you  should  see  very  old 
women  wear  as  well  as  Young." 

The  jewels  of  one  settler  of  New  Amsterdam 
were  unusually  rich  (in  1650),  and  were  enumerated 

thus : — 

£     s.     d. 
One  embroidered  purse  with   silver  bugle  and 

chain  to  the  girdle  and  silver  hook  and  eye        1      4 
One  pair  black  pendants,  gold  nocks       ...  10 

One  gold  boat,  wherein  thirteen  diamonds  &  one 

white  coral  chain 16 

One  pair  gold  stucks  or  pendants  each  with  ten 

diamonds 25 

Two  diamond  rings 24 

One  gold  ring  with  clasp  beck 12 

One   gold    ring    or   hoop    bound    round    with 

diamonds 210 

These  jewels  were  owned  by  the  wife  of  an 
English-born    citizen ;     but    some    of    the    Dutch 


Attire  of  Virginia  Dames  107 

dames  had  handsome  jewels,  especially  rich  chate- 
laines with  their  equipages  and  etuis  with  rich  and 
useful  articles  in  variety.  When  we  read  of  such 
articles,  we  find  it  difficult  to  credit  the  words  of  an 
English  clergyman  who  visited  Albany  about  the 
year  1700;  namely,  that  he  found  the  Dutch 
women  of  best  Albany  families  going  about  their 
homes  in  summer  time  and  doing  their  household 
work  while  barefooted. 

Many  conditions  existed  in  Maryland  which  were 
found  nowhere  else  in  the  colonies.  These  were 
chiefly  topographical.  The  bay  and  its  many  and 
accommodative  tide-water  estuaries  gave  the  planters 
the  means,  not  only  of  easy,  cheap,  and  speedy 
communication  with  each  other,  but  with  the  whole 
world.  It  was  a  freedom  of  intercourse  not  given 
to  any  other  agricultural  community  in  the  whole 
world.  It  was  said  that  every  planter  had  salt 
water  within  a  rifle-shot  of  his  front  gate  —  there- 
fore the  world  was  open  to  him.  The  tide  is 
never  strong  enough  on  this  shore  to  hinder  a  sail- 
boat nor  is  the  current  of  the  rivers  perceptible. 
The  crop  of  the  settlers  was  wholly  tobacco  —  in- 
deed, all  the  processes  of  government,  of  society,  of 
domestic  life,  began  and  ended  with  tobacco.  It 
was  a  wonderfully  lucrative  crop,  but  it  was  an  un- 
happy one  for  any  colony  ;  for  the  tobacco  ships 
arrived  in  fleets  only  in  May  and  June,  when  the 
crops  were  ready  for  market.  The  ships  could  come 
in  anywhere  by  tide-water.  Hence  there  were  two 
or  three  months  of  intense  excitement,  or  jollity, 
lavishness,  extravagance,  when  these  ships  were  in; 


io8 


Two  Centuries  of  Costume 


a  regular  Bartholomew  Fair  of  disorder,  coarse  wit, 
and  rough  fun  ;  and  the  rest  of  the  year  there  was 
nothing;  no  business,  no  money,  no  fun.  Often 
the  planter  found  himself  after  a  month  of  June 
gambling  and  fun  with  three  years'  crops  pledged  in 

advance  to  his  credit- 
ors. The  factor  then 
played  his  part ;  took  a 
mortgage,  perhaps,  on 
both  crops  and  planta- 
tion ;  and  invariably 
ended  in  owning  every- 
thing. A  striking  but 
coarse  picture  of  the 
traffic  and  its  evils  is 
given  in  The  Sot-weed 
Factor,  a  poem  of  the 
day. 

Land  and  living  were 
cheap   in    this   tobacco 

Lady  Anne  Clifford.  ^^      but      kbor      was 

needed  for  the  sudden  crops  ;  so  negro  slaves  were 
bought,  and  warm  invitations  were  sent  back  to 
England  for  all  and  every  kind  of  labor.  Con- 
victs were  welcomed,  redemptioners  were  eagerly 
sought  for ;  and  the  scrupulous  laws  which  were 
made  for  their  protection  were  blazoned  in  England. 
Many  laborers  were  "crimped,"  too,  in  England, 
and  brought  of  course,  willy-nilly,  to  Maryland. 
Landlords  were  even  granted  lands  in  proportion  to 
their  number  of  servants  ;  a  hundred  acres  per  capita 
was  the  allowance.     It  can  readily  be  seen  that  an 


Attire  of  Virginia  Dames  109 

ambitious  or  unscrupulous  planter  would  gather  in 
in  some  way  as  many  heads  as  possible. 

Maryland  under  the  Baltimores  was  the  only 
colony  that  then  admitted  convicts  —  that  is,  ad- 
mitted them  openly  and  legally.  She  even  greeted 
them  warmly,  eager  for  the  labor  of  their  hands, 
which  was  often  skilled  labor ;  welcomed  them  for 
their  wits,  albeit  these  had  often  been  ill  applied  ; 
welcomed  them  for  their  manners,  often  amply 
refined ;  welcomed  them  for  their  possibilities  of 
rehabilitation  of  morals  and  behavior. 

The  kidnapped  servants  did  not  fare  badly.  Many 
examples  are  known  where  they  worked  on  until 
they  had  acquired  ample  means  ;  still  the  literature 
of  the  day  is  full  of  complaints  such  as  this  in  The 
Sot-weed  Factor :  — 

"  Not  then  a  slave  ;   for  twice  two  years 
My  clothes  were  fashionably  new. 
Nor  were  my  shifts  of  linen  blue. 
But  Things  are  Changed.      Now  at  the  Hoe 
I  daily  work  ;   and  Barefoot  go. 
In  weeding  Corn,  or  feeding  Swine 
I  spend  my  melancholy  time." 

Cheap  ballads  were  sold  in  England  warning 
English  maidens  against  kidnapping. 

In  the  collection  of  Old  Black  Letter  Ballads  in 
the  British  Museum  is  one  entitled  The  Trappand 
Maiden  or  the  Distressed  Damsel.  Its  date  is  be- 
lieved to  be  1670. 

"  The  Girl  was  cunningly  trappan'd 
Sent  to  Virginny  from  England. 


iio  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

Where  she  doth  Hardship  undergo  ; 
There  is  no  cure,  it  must  be  so  ; 
But  if  she  lives  to  cross  the  Main 
She  vows  she'll  ne'er  go  there  again. 
Give  ear  unto  a  Maid 
That  lately  was  betray' d 

And  sent  unto  Virginny  O. 
In  brief  I  shall  declare 
What  I  have  suffered  there 

When  that  I  was  weary,  O. 
The  cloathes  that  I  brought  in 
They  are  worn  so  thin 

In  the  Land  of  Virginny  O, 
Which  makes  me  for  to  say 
Alas  !  and  well-a-day 

When  that  I  was  weary,  O." 

The  indentured  servant,  the  redemptioner,  or 
free-wilier  saw  before  him,  at  the  close  of  his  seven 
years  term,  a  home  in  a  teeming  land  ;  he  would  own 
fifty  acres  of  that  land  with  three  barrels,  an  axe,  a 
gun,  and  a  hoe  —  truly,  the  world  was  his.  H e  would 
have  also  a  suit  of  kersey,  strong  hose,  a  shirt,  French 
fall  shoes,  and  a  good  hat,  —  a  Monmouth  cap,  —  a 
suit  worthy  any  man.  Abigail  had  an  equal  start,  a 
petticoat  and  waistcoat  of  strong  wool,  a  perpetuana 
or  callimaneo,  two  blue  aprons,  two  linen  caps,  a 
pair  of  new  shoes,  two  pairs  of  new  stockings  and 
a  smock,  and  three  barrels  of  Indian  corn. 

We  find  that  many  of  these  redemptioners  be- 
came soldiers  in  the  colonial  wars,  often  distin- 
guished for  bravery.  This  was  through  a  law 
passed  by  the  British  government  that  all  who 
enlisted  in  military  service  in  the  colonies  were 
released  by  that  act   from  further  bondage. 


Attire  of  Virginia  Dames  1 1 1 

In  the  year  1659,  on  an  autumn  day,  two  white 
men  with  an  Indian  guide  paddled  swiftly  over  the 
waters  of  Chesapeake  Bay  on  business  of  much  im- 
port.    They  had  come  from   Manhattan,  and  bore 


Lady  Herrman. 

despatches  from  Governor  Stuyvesant  to  the  gov- 
ernor of  Maryland,  relating  to  the  ever  troublesome 
query  of  those  days,  namely,  the  exact  placing  of 
boundary  lines.  One  of  these  men  was  Augustine 
Herrman,  a  man  of  parts,  who  had  been  ambassa- 
dor   to    Rhode   Island,  a  ship-owner,  and  man   of 


H2  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

executive  ability,  which  was  proven  by  his  offer  to 
Lord  Baltimore  to  draw  a  map  of  Maryland  and 
the  surrounding  country  in  exchange  for  a  tract  of 
land  at  the  head  of  the  bay.  He  was  a  land-sur- 
veyor, and  drew  an  excellent  map ;  and  he  received 
the  four  thousand  acres  afterwards  known  as  Bohe- 
mia Manor.  His  portrait  and  that  of  his  wife  exist; 
they  are  wretched  daubs,  as  were  many  of  the  por- 
traits of  the  day,  but,  nevertheless,  her  dress  is 
plainly  revealed  by  it.  You  can  see  a  copy  of  it 
on  page  ill.  The  overdress,  pleated  body,  and 
upper  sleeve  are  green.  The  little  lace  collar  is 
drawn  up  with  a  tiny  ribbon  just  as  we  see  collars 
to-day.  Her  hair  is  simplicity  itself.  The  full 
undersleeves  and  heavy  ear-rings  give  a  little  rich- 
ness to  the  dress,  which  is  not  English  nor  is  it 
Dutch. 

It  is  easy  to  know  the  items  of  the  dress  of  the 
early  Virginian  settlers,  where  any  court  records  exist. 
Many,  of  course,  have  perished  in  the  terrible  devas- 
tations of  two  long  wars  ;  but  wherever  they  have 
escaped  destruction  all  the  records  of  church  and 
town  in  the  various  counties  of  Virginia  have  been 
carefully  transcribed  and  certified,  and  are  open  to 
consultation  in  the  Virginia  State  Library  at  Rich- 
mond, where  many  of  the  originals  are  also  pre- 
served. Many  have  also  been  printed.  Mr.  Bruce, 
in  his  fine  book,  The  Economic  History  of  Vir- 
ginia in  the  Seventeenth  Century,  has  given  fre- 
quent extracts  from  these  certified  records.  From 
them  and  from  the  originals  I  gain  much  knowl- 
edge of  the  dress  of  the  planters  at  that  time.      It 


Attire  of  Virginia   Dames 


JI3 


varied  little  from  dress  in  the  New  England  colo- 
nies save  that  Virginians  were  richer  than  New  Eng- 
landers,  and  so  had  more  costly  apparel.  Almost 
nothing  was  manufactured  in  Virginia.  The  plain- 
est and  simplest  articles  of  dress,  save  those  of 
homespun  stuffs,  were  ordered  from  England,  as 
well  as  richer  garments.  We  see  even  in  George 
Washington's  day,  until  he  was  prevented  by  war, 
that  he  sent  frequent 
orders,  wherein  elabo- 
rately detailed  attire  was 
ordered  with  the  pet- 
tiest articles  for  house- 
hold and  plantation 
use. 

Mrs.  Francis  Pritch- 
ard  of  Lancaster,  Vir- 
ginia (in  1660),  we  find 
had  a  representative 
wardrobe.  She  owned 
an  olive-colored  silk  pet- 
ticoat, another  of  silk 
tabby,  and  one  of  flowered  tabby,  one  of  velvet, 
and  one  of  white  striped  dimity.  Her  printed  calico 
gown  was  lined  with  blue  silk,  thus  proving  how 
much  calico  was  valued.  Other  bodices  were  a 
striped  dimity  jacket  and  a  black  silk  waistcoat. 
To  wear  with  these  were  a  pair  of  scarlet  sleeves 
and  other  sleeves  of  ruffled  holland.  Five  aprons, 
various  neckwear  of  Flanders  lace,  and  several  rich 
handkerchiefs  completed  a  gay  costume  to  which 
green  silk  stockings   gave   an   additional   touch   of 


Elizabeth  Cromwe 


114  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

color.  Green  was  distinctly  the  favorite  color  for 
hose  among  all  the  early  settlers  ;  and  nearly  all  the 
inventories  in  Virginia  have  that  entry. 

Mrs.  Sarah  Willoughby  of  Lower  Norfolk,  Vir- 
ginia, had  at  the  same  date  a  like  gay  wardrobe, 
valued,  however,  at  but  X!4-  Petticoats  of  calico, 
striped  linen,  India  silk,  worsted  prunella,  and  red, 
blue,  and  black  silk  were  accompanied  with  scarlet 
waistcoats  with  silver  lace,  a  white  knit  waistcoat,  a 
"  pair  of  red  paragon  bodices,"  and  another  pair  of  sky- 
colored  satin  bodices.  She  had  also  a  striped  stuff 
jacket,  a  worsted  prunella  mantle,  and  a  black  silk 
gown.  There  were  distinctions  in  the  shape  of  the  outer 
garments  —  mantles,  jackets,  and  gowns.  Hoods, 
aprons,  and  bands  completed  her  comfortable  attire. 

Though  so  much  of  the  clothing  of  the  Virginia 
planters  was  made  in  England,  there  was  certain 
work  done  by  home  tailors  ;  such  work  as  repairs, 
alterations,  making  children's  common  clothing,  and 
the  like,  also  the  clothing  of  upper  servants.  Often 
the  tailor  himself  was  a  bond-servant.  Thus,  Luke 
Mathews,  a  tailor  from  Hereford,  England,  was 
bound  to  Thomas  Landon  for  a  term  of  two  years 
from  the  day  he  landed.  He  was  to  have  sixpence 
a  day  while  working  for  the  Landon  family,  but  when 
working  for  other  persons  half  of  whatever  he  earned. 
In  the  Lancaster  County  records  is  a  tailor's  account 
(one  Noah  Rogers)  from  the  year  1690  to  1709  ;  it 
was  paid,  of  course,  in  tobacco.  We  may  set  the 
tobacco  as  worth  about  twopence  a  pound.  It  will 
be  thus  seen  from  the  following  items  that  prices  in 
Virginia  were  higher  than  in  New  England  :  — 


Attire  of  Virginia  Dames  115 

Pounds 

For  making  seven  womens'  Jacketts 70 

For  making  a  Coat  for  yr  Wife 60 

For  altering  a  Plush  Britches 20 

For  Yr  Wife  &  Daughturs  Jackett 30 

For  yr  Britches ,  20 

Coat 40 

Yr  Boys  Jacketts 20 

Yr  Sons  britches 25 

Yr  Eldest  Sons  Ticking  Suite 60 

To  making  1  Dimity  Waistcoat,  Serge  suite  2  Cot- 
ton Waistcoats  and  yr  Dimity  Coat   .      .      .      .  185 

For  a  pr  of  buff  Gloves 100 

For  1  Neck  Cloth 12 

A  pr  of  Stockings 120 

A  pr  Callimmaneo  britches 60 

Another  bill  of  the  year  1643  reads:  — 

Pounds 

To  making  a  suit  with  buttons  to  it 80 

1  ell  canvas 30 

for  dimothy  linings 30 

for  buttons  &  silke 50 

for  points 50 

for  taffeta 58 

for  belly  pieces 40 

for  hooks  &  eies 10 

for  ribbonin  for  pockets 20 

for  stiffinin  for  a  collar 10 

Sum 378 

The  extraordinary  prices  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty  pounds  of  tobacco  for  making  a  pair  of 
stockings,  and  one  hundred  for  a  pair  of  gloves,  when 


ii6  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

making  a  coat  was  but  forty,  must  remain  a  seven- 
teenth-century puzzle.  This  coat  was  probably  a 
petticoat.  It  is  curious,  too,  to  find  a  tailor  making 
gloves  and  stockings  at  any  price.  I  think  both  buff 
gloves  and  stockings  were  of  leather.  Perhaps  he 
charged  thus  broadly  because  it  was  "  not  in  his  line." 
Work  in  leather  was  always  well  paid.  We  find  tailors 
making  leather  breeches  and  leather  drawers  ;  the 
latter  could  not  be  the  garments  thus  named  to-day. 
Tailors  became  prosperous  and  well-to-do,  perhaps 
because  they  worked  in  winter  when  other  Virginia 
tradesfolk  were  idle ;  and  they  acquired  large  tracts 
of  land. 

The  conditions  of  settlement  of  Virginia  were 
somewhat  different  from  those  of  the  planting  of 
New  England.  We  find  the  land  of  many  Massa- 
chusetts towns  wholly  taken  up  by  a  group  of  settlers 
who  emigrated  together  from  the  Old  World  and 
gathered  into  a  town  together  in  the  New.  It  was 
like  the  transferal  of  a  neighborhood.  It  brought 
about  many  happy  results  of  mutual  helpfulness  and 
interdependence.  From  it  arose  that  system  of 
domestic  service  in  which  the  children  of  friends 
rendered  helpful  duty  in  other  households  and  were 
called  help.  Nothing  of  the  kind  existed  in  Vir- 
ginia. There  was  far  less  neighborhood  life. 
Plantations  were  isolated.  Lines  of  demarcation  in 
domestic  service  were  much  more  definite  where 
black  life  slaves  and  white  bond-servants  for  a  term 
of  years  performed  all  household  service.  For  the 
daughter  of  one  Virginia  household  to  "  help  "  in 
the  work  in  another  household  was  unknown.     Each 


Attire  of  Virginia  Dames  117 

system  had  its  benefits ,  each  had  its  drawbacks. 
Neither  has  wholly  survived  ;  but  something  better 
has  been  evolved,  in  spite  of  our  lamentations  for 
the  good  old  times. 

Life  is  better  ordered,  but  it  is  not  so  picturesque 
as  when  negro  servants  swarmed  in  the  kitchen,  and 
German,  Scotch,  and  Irish  redemptioners  served  in 
varied  callings.  There  was  vast  variety  of  attire  to 
be  found  on  the  Virginia  and  Maryland  plantations 
and  in  the  few  towns  of  these  colonies.  The  black 
slaves  wore  homespun  cloths  and  homespun  stuff, 
crocus  and  Virginia  cloth  ;  and  the  women  were 
happy  if  they  could  crown  their  simple  attire  with 
gay  turbans.  Indians  stalked  up  to  the  plantation 
doors,  halted  in  silence,  and  added  their  gay  dress  of 
the  wild  woods.  German  sectaries  and  mystics  fared 
on  garbed  in  their  simple  peasant  dress.  Irish 
sturdy  beggars  idled  and  fiddled  through  existence, 
in  dress  of  shabby  gentility,  with  always  a  wig. 
"  Wild-Irish  "  came  in  brogues  and  Irish  trousers. 
Sailors  and  pirates  came  ashore  gayly  dressed  in 
varied  costume,  with  gay  sashes  full  of  pistols  and  cut- 
lasses, swaggering  from  wharf  to  plantation.  Queer 
details  of  dress  had  all  these  varied  souls ;  some 
have  lingered  to  puzzle  us. 

A  year  ago  I  had  sent  to  me,  by  a  descendant  of 
an  old  Virginia  family,  a  photograph  of  a  curious 
gold  medal  or  disk,  a  family  relic  which  was  evidently 
a  token  of  some  importance,  since  it  bore  tiny  holes 
and  had  marks  of  having  been  affixed  as  an  insignia. 
Though  I  could  decipher  the  bold  initials,  cut  in 
openwork,   I    could    judge    little    by  the    colorless 


1 1 8  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

photograph,  and  finally  with  due  misgivings  and 
great  precautions  in  careful  packing,  insurance,  etc., 
the  priceless  family  relic  was  intrusted  to  an  express 
company  for  transmission  to  my  inspection.  Glad 
indeed  was  I  that  the  owner  had  not  presented  it 
in  person  ;  for  the  decoration  of  honor,  the  insignia 
of  rank,  the  trophy  of  prowess  in  war  or  emblem  of 
conquest  in  love,  was  the  pauper's  badge  of  a  Mary- 
land or  Virginia  parish.  It  was  not  a  pleasant  task 
to  write  back  the  mortifying  news  ;  but  I  am  proud 
of  the  letter  which  I  composed  ;  no  one  could  have 
done  the  deed  better. 

There  was  an  old  law  in  Virginia  which  ran  thus :  — 

"  Every  person  who  shall  receive  relief  from  the  parish 
and  be  sent  to  the  said  alms-house,  shall,  upon  the  shoulder 
of  the  right  sleeve  of  his  uppermost  garment  in  an  open  and 
visible  manner,  wear  a  badge  with  the  name  of  the  parish 
to  which  he  or  she  belongs,  cut  in  red,  blue  or  green  cloth, 
as  the  vestry  or  church  wardens  shall  direct.  And  if  any 
poor  person  shall  neglect  or  refuse  to  wear  such  badge,  such 
offense  may  be  punished  either  by  ordering  his  or  her  allow- 
ance to  be  abridged,  suspended  or  withdrawn,  or  the  offender 
to  be  whipped  not  exceeding  five  lashes  for  one  offense  ; 
and  if  any  person  not  entitled  to  relief  as  aforesaid,  shall 
presume  to  wear  such  badge,  he  or  she  shall  be  whipped 
for  every  such  offense." 

This  law  did  not  mean  the  full  name  of  the  parish, 
but  significant  initials.  Sometimes  the  initials  "  P  P  " 
were  employed,  standing  for  public  pauper.  In 
other  counties  a  metal  badge  was  ordered,  often  cast 
in  pewter.  In  one  case  a  die-cutter  was  made  by 
which   an    oblong   brass    badge    could   be  cut,   and 


Attire  of  Virginia  Dames  119 

stamps  of  letters  to  stamp  the  badges  accompanied 
it.      Sometimes  these  badges  were  three  inches  long. 

The  expression,  "  the  badge  of  poverty,"  became 
a  literal  one  when  all  persons  receiving  parochial 
relief  had  to  wear  a  large  Roman  "  P  "  with  the  initial 
of  their  parish  set  on  the  right  sleeve  of  the  upper- 
most garment  in  an  open  and  visible  manner.  Like- 
wise all  pensioners  were  ordered  to  wear  their  badges 
"  so  they  may  be  seen."  A  pauper  who  refused  to 
do  this  might  be  whipped  and  imprisoned  for  twenty- 
one  days.  Moreover,  if  the  parish  beadle  neglected 
to  spy  out  that  the  badge  was  missing  from  some 
poor  pensioner,  he  had  to  pay  half  a  crown  himself. 
This  legality  was  necessitated  by  actions  like  that 
of  the  English  goody,  who,  when  ordered  to  wear 
this  pauper's  badge,  demurely  fastened  it  to  her 
flannel  petticoat.  For  this  law,  like  all  the  early 
Virginia  statutes,  was  simply  a  transcript  of  English 
laws.  In  New  York,  for  some  years  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  the  parish  poor  —  there  were  no 
paupers  —  were  ordered  to  wear  these  badges. 

This  mode  of  stigmatizing  offenders  as  well  as 
paupers  was  in  force  in  the  earlier  days  of  all  the 
colonies.  Its  existence  in  New  England  has  been 
immortalized  in  The  Scarlet  Letter.  I  have  given 
in  my  book,  Curious  Punishments  of  By-gone  Days, 
many  examples  of  the  wearing  of  significant  letters 
by  criminals  in  various  New  England  towns,  in 
Plymouth,  Salem,  Taunton,  Boston,  Hartford,  New 
London,  also  in  New  York.  It  offered  a  singular 
and  striking  detail  of  costume  to  see  William 
Bacon   in    Boston,  and   Robert  Coles   in    Roxbury, 


120  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

wearing  "  hanged  about  their  necks  on  their  outerd 
garment  a  D  made  of  Ridd  cloth  sett  on  white." 
A  Boston  woman  wore  a  great  "  B,"  not  for  Boston, 
but  for  blasphemy.  John  Davis  wore  a  "V"  for 
viciousness.  Others  were  forced  to  wear  for  years 
a  heavy  cord  around  the  neck,  signifying  that  the 
offender  lived  under  the  shadow  of  the  gallows  and 
its  rope. 

But  return  we  to  the  metal  badge  which  has  caused 
this  diversion  to  so  gloomy  a  subject  as  crime  and 
punishment.  It  was  simply  an  oblong  plate  about 
three  and  one-half  inches  long,  of  humble  metal  — 
pinchbeck,  or  alchemy — but  plated  heavily  with  gold, 
therefore  readily  mistaken  for  solid  gold  ;  upon  it  the 
telltale  initials  "  P  P"  had  been  stamped  with  a  die, 
while  smaller  letters  read  "St.  J.  Psh."  These  con- 
firmed my  immediate  suspicions,  for  I  had  seen  an 
order  of  relief  for  a  stricken  wanderer  —  an  order  for 
two  weeks'  relief,  where  the  wardens  of  "  St.  J.  Psh." 
ordered  the  sheriff  to  send  the  pauper  on  —  to  make 
him  "  move  along  "  to  some  other  parish.  This  gold 
badge  was  not  unlike  the  metal  badges  worn  on  the 
left  arm  by  "  Bedlam  beggars,"  the  licensed  beggars 
of  Bethlehem  Hospital,  the  half-cured  patients  of 
that  asylum  for  lunatics. 

The  owner  of  this  badge  with  ancient  letters  had 
not  idly  accepted  them,  or  jumped  at  the  conclu- 
sion that  it  was  a  decoration  of  honor  for  his  an- 
cestor. He  had  searched  its  history  long,  and  he 
had  found  in  Hall's  Chronicles  of  the  Pageants  and 
Progress  of  the  English  Kings  ample  reference  to 
similar  letters,  but  not  as  pauper's  badges.      Indeed, 


Attire  of  Virginia  Dames  121 

like  many  another  well-read  and  intelligent  person, 
he  had  never  heard  of  pauper's  badges.      He  read :  — 

"  In  this  garden  was  the  King  and  five  with  him  ap- 
paryelled  in  garments  of  purpull  satyn,  every  edge  garnished 
with  frysed  golde  and  every  garment  full  of  posyes  made  of 
letters  of  fine  gold,  of  bullion  as  thick  as  might  be.  And 
six  Ladyes  wore  rochettes  rouled  with  crymosyn  velvet  and 
set  with  lettres  like  Carettes.  And  after  the  Kyng  and  his 
compaignions  had  daunsed,  he  appointed  the  Ladies,  Gen- 
tlewomen, and  Ambassadours  to  take  the  lettres  ofF  their  gar- 
ments in  token  of  liberalyte.  Which  thing  the  common 
people  perceiving,  ranne  to  them  and  stripped  them.  And 
at  this  banket  a  shypman  of  London  caught  certayn  lettres 
which  he  sould  to  a  goldsmith  for  £t).  14.C  Sd." 

All  this  was  pleasing  to  the  vanity  of  our  friend, 
who  fancied  his  letters  as  having  taken  part  in  a 
like  pageant ;  perhaps  as  a  gift  of  the  king  himself. 
We  must  remember  that  he  believed  his  badge  of 
pure  gold.  He  did  not  know  it  was  a  base  metal, 
plated.  He  proudly  pictured  his  forbears  taking 
part  in  some  kingly  pageant.  He  scorned  so  mod- 
ern and  commonplace  a  possibility  as  a  society  like 
Knights  of  the  Golden  Horseshoe,  which  was  formed 
of  Virginian  gentlefolk. 

It  plainly  was  a  relic  of  some  romance,  and  in 
the  strangely  picturesque  events  of  the  early  years 
in  this  New  World  need  not,  though  a  pauper's 
badge,  have  been  a  badge  of  dishonor.  What 
strange  event  or  happening,  or  scene  had  it  over- 
looked ?  Why  had  it  been  covered  with  its  golden 
sheet?  Was  it  in  defiance  or  in  satire,  in  remorse, 
or  in  revenge,  or  in  humble  and  grateful  recognition 


122  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

of  some  strange  and  protecting  Providence  ?  We 
shall  never  know.  It  was  certainly  not  an  agreeable 
discovery,  to  think  that  your  great-grandmother  or 
grandfather  had  probably  been  branded  as  a  public 
pauper;  but  there  were  strange  exiles  and  strange 
paupers  in  those  days,  exiles  through  political  parties, 
through  the  disfavor  of  kings,  through  religious 
conviction,  and  the  pauper  of  the  golden  badge,  the 
pauper  of"  St.  J.  Psh.,"  may  have  ended  his  days  as 
vestryman  of  that  very  church.  Certain  it  was,  that 
no  ordinary  pauper  would  have,  or  could  have,  thus 
preserved  it ;  and  from  similar  reverses  and  glorify- 
ing equally  base  objects  came  the  subjects  of  half 
the  crests  of  English  heraldry. 

The  likeness  of  Pocahontas  (facing  this  page) 
is  dated  1616.  It  is  in  the  dress  of  a  well-to-do 
Englishwoman,  a  woman  of  importance  and  means. 
This  portrait  has  been  a  shock  to  many  who  ideal- 
ized the  Indian  princess  as  "  that  sweet  American 
girl,"  as  Thackeray  called  her.  Especially  is  it 
disagreeable  in  many  of  the  common  prints  from 
it.  One  flippant  young  friend,  the  wife  of  an  army 
officer,  who  had  been  stationed  in  the  far  West, 
said  of  it,  in  disgust,  remembering  her  frontier 
residence,  "  With  a  man's  hat  on  !  just  like  every 
old  Indian  squaw  !  "  This  hat  is  certainly  displeas- 
ing, but  it  was  not  worn  through  Indian  taste;  it 
was  an  English  fashion,  seen  on  women  of  wealth 
as  well  as  of  the  plainer  sort.  I  have  a.  score  of 
prints  and  photographs  of  English  portraits,  wherein 
this  mannish  hat  is  shown.  In  the  original  of  this 
portrait  of  Pocahontas,  the  heavy,  sombre  effect  is 


Pocahontas. 


Attire  of  Virginia   Dames  123 

much  lightened  by  the  gold  hatband.  These  rich 
hatbands  were  one  of  the  articles  of  dress  prohibited 
as  vain  and  extravagant  by  the  Massachusetts  magis- 
trates. They  were  costly  luxuries.  We  find 
them  named  and  valued  in  many  inventories  in  all 
the  colonies,  and  John  Pory,  secretary  of  the  Vir- 
ginia colony,  wrote  about  that  time  to  a  friend  in 
England  a  sentence  which  has  given,  I  think  to  all 
who  read  it,  an  exaggerated  notion  of  the  dress  of 
Virginians  :  — 

u  Our  cowekeeper  here  of  James  citty  on  Sundays  goes 
accoutred  all  in  ffreshe  fflaminge  silke,  and  a  wife  of  one 
that  had  in  England  professed  the  blacke  arte  not  of  a 
Scholler  but  of  a  Collier  weares  her  rough  beaver  hatt  with 
a  faire  perle  hatband,  and  a  silken  sute  there  to  correspond." 

Corroborative  evidence  of  the  richness  and  great 
cost  of  these  hatbands  is  found  in  a  letter  of  Susan 
Moseley  to  Governor  Yardley  of  Virginia,  telling 
of  the  exchange  of  a  hatband  and  jewel  for  four 
young  cows,  one  older  cow  and  four  oxen,  on  ac- 
count of  her  "great  want  of  cattle."  She  writes 
on  "this  Last  July  1650,  at  Elizabeth  River  in 
Virginia  "  :  — 

"  I  had  rayther  your  wife  should  weare  them  then  any 
gentle  woman  I  yet  know  in  ye  country  ;  but  good  Sir  have 
no  scruple  concerninge  their  rightnesse,  for  I  went  my  selfe 
from  Rotterdam  to  ye  haugh  (The  Hague)  to  inquire  of 
ye  gould  smiths  and  found  y't  they  weare  all  Right,  there- 
fore thats  without  question,  and  for  ye  hat  band  y't  alone 
coste  five  hundred  gilders  as  my  husband  knows  verry  well 
and  will  tell  you  soe  when  he  sees  you  ;   for  ye  Juell  and 


124  Two   Centuries   of  Costume 

ye  ringe  they  weare  made  for  mi-  at  Rotterdam  ana  I  paid 
in  good  rex  dollars  sixty  gilders  for  ve  Juell  and  ftvety  and 
two  gilders  for  ye  ringe,  which  comes  to  in  English  monny 
eleaven  poundes  tower  shillings.  I  have  sent  the  sute  and 
Ringe  by  your  servant,  and  I  wish  Mrs.  Yeardley  health 
and  prosperity  to  weare  them  in,  and  give  you  both  thanks 
for  your  kind  token.  When  my  husband  comes  home  we 
will  see  to  gett  ye  Cattell  home,  in  ve  meantime  1  present 
my  Love  and  service  to  your  selfe  &  wife,  and  commit 
you  all  to  God,  and  remaine, 

"  Your  friend  and  servant, 

"  Susan  Moseley." 

The  purchasing  value  of  five  hundred  guilders, 
the  cost  of  the  hatband,  would  be  equal  to-day  to 
nearly  a  thousand  dollars. 

In  the  portrait  of  Pocahontas  in  the  original, 
there  is  also  much  liveliness  of  color,  a  rich  scarlet 
with  heavy  braidings  ;  these  all  lessen  somewhat  the 
forbidding  presence  of  the  stiff  hat.  She  carries  a 
fan  of  ostrich  feathers,  such  as  are  depicted  in  por- 
traits of  Queen  Elizabeth. 

These  feather  fans  had  little  looking-glasses  of 
silvered  glass  or  polished  steel  set  at  the  base  of  the 
feathers.  Euphues  says,  "  The  glasses  you  carry 
in  fans  of  feathers  show  you  to  be  lighter  than 
feathers ;  the  new-found  glass  chains  that  you  wear 
about  your  necks,  argue  you  to  be  more  brittle  than 
glass." 

These  fans  were,  in  the  queen's  hands,  as  large 
as  hand  fire-screens  ;  many  were  given  to  her  as 
New  Year's  gifts  or  other  tokens,  one  by  Sir  Francis 
Drake.      This  makes  me  believe  that  they  were  a 


Attire  of  Virginia   Dames  125 

fashion  taken  from  the  North  American  Indians 
and  eagerly  adopted  in  England ;  where,  for  two 
centuries,  everything  related  to  the  red-men  of  the 
New  World  was  seized  upon  with  avidity  —  except 
their  costume. 

The  hat  worn  by  Pocahontas,  or  a  lower  crowned 
form  of  it,  is  seen  in  the  Hollar  drawing  of  Puritan 
women  (facing  page  96),  where  it  seems  specially  ugly 
and  ineffective,  and  on  the  Quaker  Tub-preacher. 
It  lingered  for  many  years,  perched  on  top  of  French 
hoods,  close  caps,  kerchiefs,  and  other  variety  of 
head-gear  worn  by  women  of  all  ranks  ;  never  ele- 
gant, never  becoming.  I  can  think  of  no  reason 
for  its  long  existence  and  dominance  save  its  costli- 
ness. It  was  not  imitated,  so  it  kept  its  place  as 
long  as  the  supply  of  beaver  was  ample.  This  hat 
was  also  durable.  A  good  beaver  hat  was  not  for  a 
year  nor  even  for  a  generation.  It  lasted  easily 
half  a  century.  But  we  all  know  that  the  beaver 
disappeared  suddenly  from  our  forests ;  and  as  a 
sequence  the  beaver  hat  was  no  longer  available  for 
common  wear.  It  still  held  its  place  as  a  splendid, 
feather-trimmed,  rich  article  of  dress,  a  hat  for  dress 
wear,  and  it  was  then  comely  and  becoming.  Within 
a  few  years,  through  national  and  state  protection, 
the  beaver,  most  interesting  of  wild  creatures,  has 
increased  and  multiplied  in  North  America  until  it 
has  become  in  certain  localities  a  serious  pest  to 
lumbermen.  We  must  revive  the  fashion  of  real 
beaver  hats  —  that  will  speedily  exterminate  the  race. 

It  always  has  seemed  strange  to  me  that,  in  the 
prodigious  interest  felt  in  England  for  the  American 


126  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

Indian,  an  interest  shown  in  the  thronging,  gaping 
sight-seers  that  surrounded  every  taciturn  red-man 
who  visited  the  Old  World,  no  fashions  of  ornament 
or  dress  were  copied  as  gay,  novel,  or  becoming. 
The    Indian     afforded    startling    detail    to    interest 


Duchess  of  Buckingham  and  her  Two  Children. 

the  most  jaded  fashion-seeker.  The  Works  of 
Captain  John  Smithy  Strachey's  Historie  of  Travaile 
into  Virginia^  the  works  of  Roger  Williams,  of  John 
Josselyn,  the  letters  of  various  missionaries,  give  full 
accounts  of  their  brilliant  attire;  and  many  of  these 
works  were  illustrated.  The  beautiful  mantles  of 
the  Virginia  squaws,  made  of  carefully  dressed  skins, 


Attire  of  Virginia  Dames  127 

were  tastefully  fringed  and  embroidered  with  tiny 
white  beads  and  minute  disks  of  copper,  like  span- 
gles, which,  with  the  buff  of  the  dressed  skin,  made 
a  charming  color-study  —  copper  and  buff —  picked 
out  with  white.  Sometimes  small  brilliant  shells 
or  feathers  were  added  to  the  fringes.  An  Indian 
princess,  writes  one  chronicler,  wore  a  fair  white  deer- 
skin with  a  frontal  of  white  coral  and  pendants  of 
"great  but  imperfect-colored  and  worse-drilled 
pearls"  —  our  modern  baroque  pearls.  A  chain 
of  linked  copper  encircled  her  neck  ;  and  her  maid 
brought  to  her  a  mantle  called  a  "  puttawas "  of 
glossy  blue  feathers  sewed  so  thickly  and  evenly 
that  it  seemed   like   heavy   purple  satin. 

A  traveller  wrote  thus  of  an  Indian  squaw  and 
brave  :  — 

"  His  wife  was  very  well  favored,  of  medium  stature 
and  very  bashful.  She  had  on  her  back  a  long  cloak  of 
leather,  with  the  fur  side  next  to  her  body.  About  her 
forehead  she  had  a  band  of  white  coral.  In  her  ears  she 
had  bracelets  of  pearls  hanging  down  to  her  waist.  The 
rest  of  her  women  of  the  better  sort  had  pendants  of  copper 
hanging  in  either  ear,  and  some  of  the  children  of  the 
King's  brother  and  other  noblemen,  had  five  or  six  in  either 
ear.  He  himself  had  upon  his  head  a  broad  plate  of  gold 
or  copper,  for  being  unpolished  we  knew  not  which  metal 
it  might  be,  neither  would  he  by  any  means  suffer  us  to 
take  it  off  his  head.  His  apparel  was  like  his  wife's,  only 
the  women  wear  their  hair  long  on  both  sides  of  the  head, 
and  the  men  on  but  one  side.  They  are  of  color  yellow- 
ish, and  their  hair  black  for  the  most  part,  and  yet  we  saw 
children  who  had  very  fine  auburn  and  chestnut  colored 
hair." 


128  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

John  Josselyn  wrote  of  tawny  beauties  :  — 

"  They  are  girt  about  the  middle  with  a  Zone  wrought 
with  Blue  and  White  Beads  into  Pretty  Works.  Of  these 
Beads  they  have  Bracelets  for  the  Neck  and  Arms,  and 
Links  to  hang  in  their  Ears,  and  a  Fair  Table  curiously 
made  up  with  Beads  Likewise  to  wear  before  their  Breast. 
Their  Hair  they  combe  backward,  and  tye  it  up  short  with 
a  Border  about  two  Handsfull  broad,  wrought  in  works  as 
the  Other  with  their  Beads. 

Powhatan's  "  Habit  "  still  exists.  It  is  in  Eng- 
land, in  the  Tradescant  Collection  which  formed 
the  nucleus  of  the  Ashmolean  Collection.  It  was 
probably  presented  by  Captain  John  Smith  himself. 
It  is  made  of  two  deerskins  ornamented  with  "  roa- 
noke  "  shell-work,  about  seven  feet  long  by  five  feet 
wide.  Roanoke  is  akin  to  wampum,  but  this  is  made 
of  West  Indian  shells.  The  figures  are  circles,  a 
crude  human  figure  and  two  mythical  composite  ani- 
mals. He  also  wore  fine  mantles  of  raccoon  skins. 
A  conjurer's  dress  was  simply  a  girdle  with  a  single 
deerskin,  while  a  great  blackbird  with  outstretched 
wings  was  fastened  to  one  ear  —  a  striking  ornament. 
I  am  always  delighted  to  read  such  proof  as  this  of 
a  fact  that  I  have  ever  known,  namely,  that  the 
American  Indian  is  the  most  accomplished,  the 
most  telling  poseur  the  world  has  ever  known. 
The  ear  of  the  Indian  man  and  woman  was  pierced 
along  the  entire  outer  edge  and  filled  with  long 
drops,  a  fringe  of  coral,  gold,  and  pearl.  The  wives 
of  Powhatan  wore  triple  strings  of  great  pearls  close 
around    their  throats,  and  a  long    string  over  one 


Attire  of  Virginia   Dames  129 

shoulder,  while  their  mantles  were  draped  to  show 
their  full  handsome  neck  and  arms.  Altogether, 
with  their  carefully  dressed  hair,  they  would  have 
made  in  full  dress  a  fine  show  in  a  modern  opera- 
box,  and,  indeed,  the  Indian  squaws  did  cause  vast 
exhibition  of  curiosity  and  delight  when  they  visited 
London  and  were  taken  sight-seeing  and  sight-seen. 

As  early  as  1629  an  Indian  chief  with  his  wife  and 
son  came  from  Nova  Scotia  to  England.  Lord 
Poulet  paid  them  much  attention  in  Somersetshire, 
and  Lady  Poulet  took  Lady  Squaw  up  to  London 
and  gave  her  a  necklace  and  a  diamond,  which  I 
suppose  she  wore  with  her  blue  and  white  beads. 

Be  the  story  of  the  saving  of  John  Smith  by 
Pocahontas  a  myth  or  the  truth,  it  forever  lives  a 
beautiful  and  tender  reality  in  the  hearts  of  Ameri- 
can children.  Pocahontas  was  not  the  only  Indian 
squaw  who  played  a  kindly  part  in  the  first  coloni- 
zation of  this  country.  There  were  many,  though 
their  deeds  and  names  are  forgotten  ;  and  there  was 
one  Indian  woman  whose  influence  was  much  greater 
and  more  prolonged  than  was  that  of  Pocahontas, 
and  was  haloed  with  many  years  of  exciting  adventure 
as  well  as  romance.  Let  me  recount  a  few  details 
of  her  life,  that  you  may  wonder  with  me  that  the 
only  trace  of  Indian  life  marked  indelibly  on  Eng- 
land was  found  on  the  swinging  signs  of  inns  known 
by  the  name  of  "The  Bell  Savage,"  "  La  Belle  Sau- 
vage,"  and  even  "  The  Savage  and  Bell." 

This  second  Indian  squaw  was  a  South  Carolina 
neighbor  of  our  beloved  Pocahontas  ;  she  had  not, 
alas,  the  lovely   disposition  and   noble  character  of 


ijo  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

Powhatan's  daughter.  She  was  systematically  and 
constitutionally  mischievous,  like  a  rogue  elephant, 
so  I  call  her  a  rogue  squaw.  Her  name  was  Coosa- 
ponakasee.  The  name  is  too  long  and  too  hard 
to  say  with  frequency,  so  we  will  do  as  did  her 
English  friends  and  foes  —  call  her  Mary.  Indeed, 
she  was  baptized  Mary,  for  she  was  a  half-breed,  and 
her  white  father  had  her  reared  like  a  Christian,  had 
her  educated  like  an  English  girl  as  far  as  could  be 
done  in  the  little  primitive  settlement  of  Ponpon, 
South  Carolina.  It  will  be  shown  that  the  attempt 
was  not  over-successful. 

She  was  a  princess,  the  niece  of  crafty  old  Brim, 
the  king  of  two  powerful  tribes  of  Georgia  Indians, 
the  Creeks  and  Uchees.  In  171 5,  when  she  was 
about  fifteen  years  old,  a  fierce  Indian  war  broke 
out  in  the  early  spring,  and  at  the  defeat  of  the 
Indians  she  promptly  left  her  school  and  her  church 
and  went  out  into  the  wilds,  a  savage  among  savages, 
preferring  defeat  and  a  wild  summer  in  the  woods 
with  her  own  people  to  decorous  victory  within  doors 
with  her  fellow  Christians. 

The  following  year  an  Englishman,  Colonel  John 
Musgrove,  accompanied  by  his  son,  went  out  as  a 
mediator  to  the  Creek  Indians  to  secure  their  friend- 
ship, or  at  any  rate  their  neutrality.  The  young 
squaw,  Mary,  served  as  interpreter,  and  the  younger 
English  pacificator  promptly  proved  his  amicable 
disposition  by  falling  in  love  with  her.  He  did  what 
was  more  unusual,  he  married  her ;  and  soon  they 
set  up  a  large  trading-house  on  the  Savannah  River, 
where  they  prospered  beyond  belief.      On  the  arrival 


A  Woman's  Doublet.     Mrs.  Anne  Turner. 


Attire  of  Virginia  Dames  131 

of  the  shipload  of  emigrants  sent  out  by  the  Trus- 
tees of  Georgia  the  English  found  Mary  Musgrove 
and  her  husband  already  carrying  on  a  large  trade, 
in  securing  and  transacting  which  she  had  served  as 
interpreter.  When  Oglethorpe  landed,  he  at  once 
went  to  her,  and  asked  permission  to  settle  near  her 
trading-station.  She  welcomed  him,  helped  him, 
interpreted  for  him,  and  kept  things  in  general  run- 
ning smoothly  in  the  settlement  between  the  English 
and  the  Indians.  The  two  became  close  friends, 
and  as  long  as  generous  but  confiding  Oglethorpe 
remained,  all  went  well  in  the  settlement ;  but  in 
time  he  returned  to  England,  giving  her  a  handsome 
diamond  ring  in  token  of  his  esteem.  Her  husband 
died  soon  after  and  she  removed  to  a  new  station 
called  Mount  Venture.  Oglethorpe  shortly  wrote 
of  her :  — 

"  I  find  that  there  is  the  utmost  endeavour  by  the  Span- 
iards to  destroy  her  because  she  is  of  consequence  and  in 
the  King's  interests  ;  therefor  it  is  the  business  of  the  King's 
friends  to  support  her  ;  besides  which  I  shall  always  be  de- 
sirous to  serve  her  out  of  the  friendship  she  has  shown  me 
as  well  as  the  colony." 

In  a  letter  of  John  Wesley's   written    to    Lady 

Oglethorpe,    and    now  preserved    in    the    Georgia 

Historical  Society,  he  refers  frequently  to  Mary 
Musgrove,   saying :  — 

"  I  had  with  me  an  interpreter  the  half-breed,  Mary 
Musgrove,  and  daily  had  meetings  for  instruction  and  prayer. 
One  woman  was  baptized.  She  was  of  them  who  came 
out  of  great  tribulation,  her  husband  and  all  her  three  chil- 


132  Two   Centuries   of  Costume 

dren  having  been  drowned  four  days  before  in  crossing  the 
Ogeechee  River.  Her  happiness  in  the  gospel  caused  me 
to  feel  that,  like  fob,  the  widow's  heart  had  been  caused  to 
sing  for  joy.  She  was  married  again  the  day  following  her 
baptism.  I  suggested  longer  days  of  mourning.  She  re- 
plied that  her  first  husband  was  surely  dead  ;  and  that  his 
successor  was  of  much  substance,  owning  a  cornfield  and 
gun.  I  doubt  the  interpreter  Mary  Musgrove,  that  she  is 
yet  in  the  valley  and  shadow  of  darkness." 

One  can  picture  the  excitement  of  the  Choctaw 
squaw  to  lose  her  husband  and  children,  and  to  get 
another  husband  and  religion  in  a  week's  time. 
Her  reply  that  her  husband  "  was  surely  dead " 
bears  a  close  resemblance  to  the  hackneyed  story  of 
the  response  to  a  charivari  query  of  the  Dutch 
bridegroom  who  had  been  a  widower  but  a  week, 
"  Ain't  my  vife  as  deadt  as  she  ever  vill  be?  " 

Her  usefulness  continued.  If  a  "  talk  "  were  had 
with  the  Indians  in  Savannah,  Fredonia,  or  any 
other  settlement,  Mary  had  to  be  sent  for;  if 
Indian  warriors  had  to  be  hired,  to  keep  an  army 
against  the  Spanish  or  marauding  Indians,  Mary 
obtained  them  from  her  own  people.  If  land  were 
bought  of  the  Indians,  Mary  made  the  trade.  She 
soon  married  Captain  Matthews,  who  had  been  sent 
out  with  a  small  English  troop  to  protect  her  trad- 
ing-post ;  he  also  speedily  died,  leaving  her  free, 
after  alliances  with  trade  and  war,  to  find  a  third 
husband  in  ecclesiastical  circles,  in  the  person  of  one 
Chaplain  Bosomworth,  a  parson  of  much  pomposity 
and  ambition,  and  of  liberal  education  without  a  lib- 
eral brain.       He  had  had  a  goodly  grant  of  lands 


Attire  of  Virginia   Dames  133 

to  prompt  and  encourage  him  in  his  missionary 
endeavors  ;  and  he  was  under  the  direction  and  pro- 
tection of  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gos- 
pel. His  mission  was  to  convert  the  Indians,  and  he 
began  by  marrying  one  ;  he  then  proceeded  to  break 
the  law  by  bringing  in  the  first  load  of  negro  slaves 
in  that  colony,  a  trade  which  was  positively  pro- 
hibited by  the  conditions  and  laws  of  the  colony. 
When  his  illegal  traffic  was  stopped,  he  got  his  wife 
to  send  in  back  claims  to  the  colony  of  Georgia 
for  125,000  as  interpreter,  mediator,  agent,  etc., 
for  the  English.  She  had  already  been  paid 
about  a  thousand  dollars.  This  demand  being 
promptly  refused,  the  hitherto  pacific  and  friendly 
Mary,  edged  on  by  that  sorry  specimen  of  a  parson, 
her  husband,  began  a  series  of  annoying  and  extraor- 
dinary capers.  She  declared  herself  empress  of 
Georgia,  and  after  sending  her  half-brother,  a  full- 
blooded  Indian,  as  an  advance-courier,  she  came 
with  a  body  of  Indians  to  Savannah.  The  Rev. 
Thomas  Bosomworth,  decked  in  full  canonical  robes, 
headed  the  Indians  by  the  side  of  his  empress  wife, 
dressed  in  Indian  costume;  and  an  imposing  pro- 
cession they  made,  with  plenty  of  theatrical  t color. 
At  first  the  desperate  colonists  thought  of  seizing 
Mary  and  shipping  her  off  to  England  to  Ogle- 
thorpe, but  this  notion  was  abandoned.  As  the 
English  soldiers  were  very  few  at  that  special  time, 
and  the  Indian  warriors  many,  we  can  well  believe 
that  the  colonists  were  well  scared,  the  more  so  that 
when  the  Indians  were  asked  the  reason  of  their 
visit,  "  their  answers    were   very   trifling    and    very 


134  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

dark."  So  a  feast  was  offered  them,  but  Mary  and 
her  brother  refused  to  come  and  to  eat ;  and  the 
dinner  was  scarcely  under  way  when  more  armed 
Indians  appeared  from  all  quarters  in  the  streets, 
running  up  and  down  in  an  uproar,  and  the  town 
was  in  great  confusion.  The  alarm  drums  were 
beaten,  and  it  was  reported  that  the  Indians  had  cut 
off  the  head  of  the  president  as  they  sat  together  at 
the  feast.  Every  man  in  the  colony  turned  out  in 
full  arms  for  duty,  the  women  and  children  gathered 
in  groups  in  their  homes  in  unspeakable  terror. 
Then  the  president  and  his  assistants  who  had  been 
at  the  dinner,  and  who  had  gone  unarmed  to  show 
their  friendly  intent,  did  what  they  should  have  done 
in  the  beginning,  seized  that  disreputable  specimen 
of  an  English  missionary,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Bosom- 
worth,  and  put  him  in  prison  ;  and  we  wonder  they 
kept  their  hands  off  him  as  long  as  they  did.  Still 
trying  to  settle  the  matter  without  bloodshed,  the 
president  asked  the  Indian  chiefs  to  adjourn  to  his 
house  "to  drink  a  glass  of  wine  and  talk  the  matter 
over."  Into  this  conference  came  Mary,  bereft  of 
her  husband,  raging  like  a  madwoman,  threatening 
the  lives  of  the  magistrates,  swearing  she  would 
annihilate  the  colony.  "  A  fig  for  your  general," 
screamed  she,  "  you  own  not  a  foot  of  land  in  this 
colony.  The  whole  earth  is  mine."  Whereupon 
the  Empress  of  Georgia,  too,  was  placed  under 
military   guard. 

Then  a  harassing  week  of  apprehension  ensued ; 
the  Indians  were  fed,  and  parleyed  with,  and  rea- 
soned   with,    and    explained    to.      At    last    Mary's 


Attire  of  Virginia  Dames  135 

brother  Malatche,  at  a  conference,  presented  as  a 
final  demand  a  paper  setting  forth  plainly  the  claims 
of  the  Indians.  The  sequel  of  this  presentation  is 
almost  comic.  The  paper  was  so  evidently  the 
production  of  Bosomworth,  and  so  wholly  for  his 
own  personal  benefit  and  not  for  that  of  the  Ind- 
ians, and  the  astonishment  of  the  president  and  his 
council  was  so  great  at  his  vast  and  open  assump- 
tion, that  the  Indians  were  bewildered  in  turn  by  the 
strange  and  unexpected  manner  of  the  white  men 
upon  reading  the  paper  ;  and  childishly  begged  to 
have  the  paper  back  again  "  to  give  to  him  who 
made  it."  A  plain  exposition  of  Bosomworth's 
greed  and  craft  followed,  and  all  seemed  amicably 
explained  and  settled,  and  the  Creeks  offered  to 
smoke  the  pipe  of  peace  ;  when  in  came  Mary,  hav- 
ing escaped  her  guards,  full  of  rum  and  of  rancor. 
The  president  said  to  her  in  a  low  voice  that  unless 
she  ceased  brawling  and  quarrelling  he  would  at 
once  put  her  into  close  confinement;  she  turned  in 
a  rage  to  her  brother,  and  translated  the  threat.  He 
and  every  Indian  in  the  room  sprang  to  their  feet, 
drew  tomahawks,  and  for  a  short  time  a  complete 
massacre  was  imminent.  Then  the  captain  of  the 
guard,  Captain  Noble  Jones,  who  had  chafed  under 
all  this  explaining  diplomacy,  lost  his  much-tried 
patience,  and  like  a  brave  and  fearless  English  sol- 
dier ordered  the  Indians  to  surrender  arms.  Though 
far  greater  in  number  than  the  English,  they  yielded 
to  his  intrepidity  and  wrath ;  and  the  following 
night  and  day  they  sneaked  out  of  the  town,  as 
ordered,  by  twos  and  threes. 


136  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

For  one  month  this  fright  and  commotion  and 
expense  had  existed  ;  and  at  last  wholly  alone  were 
left  the  two  contemptible  malcontents  and  insti- 
gators of  it  all.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bosomworth  there- 
after ate  very  humble  pie;  he  begged  sorely  and 
cried  tearfully  to  be  forgiven  ;  and  he  wailed  so 
deeply  and  promised  so  broadly  that  at  last  the  two 
were  publicly  pardoned. 

Yet,  after  all,  they  had  their  own  way;  for  they 
soon  went  to  London  and  cut  an  infinitely  fine 
figure  there.  Mary  was  the  top  of  the  mode,  and 
there  Bosomworth  managed  to  get  for  his  wife  lands 
and  coin  to  the  amount  of  about  a  hundred  thousand 
dollars. 

The  prosperous  twain  returned  to  America  in 
triumph,  and  built  a  curious  and  large  house  on  an 
island  they  had  acquired  ;  in  it  the  Empress  did  not 
long  reign  ;  at  her  death  the  Rev.  Mr.  Bosomworth 
married  his  chambermaid. 

Such  is  the  sorry  tale  of  the  Indian  squaw  and 
the  English  parson,  a  tale  the  more  despicable  be- 
cause, though  she  had  been  reared  in  English  ways, 
baptized  in  the  English  faith,  had  been  the  friend 
of  English  men  and  women,  and  married  three  Eng- 
lish husbands  ;  yet  when  fifty  years  old  she  returned 
at  vicious  suggestion  with  promptitude  and  fierceness 
to  violent  savage  ways,  to  incite  a  massacre  of  her 
friends.  And  that  suggestion  came  not  from  her 
barbarian  kin,  but  from  an  English  gentleman  —  a 
Christian  priest. 


CHAPTER    IV 


A    VAIN     PURITAN    GRANDMOTHER 


"  Things    far  re- fetched    and    deare-bought     are    good   for 

—  "Arte  of  English  Poesie,"  G.  Puttenham,  1589. 


"  /   honour   a    Woman    that   can    honour    herself  with   her 
Attire.      A  good  Text  deserves  a  Fair  Mar  gent." 

—  "  The  Simple  Cobbler  of  Agawam,"  J.  Ward,  171  3. 


CHAPTER    IV 

A    VAIN     PURITAN    GRANDMOTHER 

HERE  was  a  certain  family  prominent 
in  affairs  in  the  seventeenth  and  eigh- 
teenth centuries,  with  members  resi- 
dent in  England,  New  England,  and 
the  Barbadoes.  They  were  gentlefolk 
—  and  gentle  folk;  they  were  of  birth  and  breed- 
ing ;  and  they  were  kindly,  tender,  affectionate  to  one 
another.  They  were  given  to  much  letter-writing, 
and  better  still  to  much  letter-keeping.  Knowing 
the  quality  of  their  letters,  I  cannot  wonder  at  either 
habit ;  for  the  prevalence  of  the  letter-keeping  was 
due,  I  am  sure,  to  the  perfection  of  the  writing. 
Their  letters  were  ever  lively  in  diction,  direct  and 
lucid  in  description,  and  widely  varied  in  interest ; 
therefore  they  were  well  worthy  of  preservation, 
simply  for  the  owner's  re-reading.  They  have  proved 
so  for  all  who  have  brushed  the  dust  from  the  pack- 
ages and  deciphered  the  faded  words.  Moreover, 
these  letters  are  among  the  few  family  letters  of  our 
two  centuries  which  convey,  either  to  the  original 
reader  or  to  his  successor  of  to-day,  anything  that 
could,  by  most  generous  construction  or  fullest  im- 
agination, be  deemed  equivalent  to  what  we  now 
term  News. 

139 


140  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

Of  course  their  epistles  contained  many  moral 
reflections  and  ample  religious  allusions  and  aspira- 
tions ;  and  they  even  transcribed  to  each  other,  in 
full,  long  Biblical  quotations  with  as  much  exactness 
and  length  as  if  each  deemed  his  correspondent  a 
benighted  heathen,  with  no  Bible  to  consult,  instead 
of  being  an  equally  pious  kinsman  with  a  Bible  in 
every  room  of  his  house. 

Their  name  was  Hall.  The  heads  of  the  family 
in  early  colonial  days  were  the  merchants  John  Hall 
and  Hugh  Hall  ;  these  surnames  have  continued  in 
the  family  till  the  present  time,  as  has  the  cunning 
of  hand  and  wit  of  brain  in  letter-writing,  even  into 
the  seventh  and  eighth  generation,  as  I  can  abun- 
dantly testify  from  my  own  private  correspondence. 
I  have  quoted  freely  in  several  of  my  books  from 
old  family  letters  and  business  letter-books  of  the 
Hall  family.  Many  of  these  letters  have  been 
intrusted  to  me  from  the  family  archives ;  others, 
especially  the  business  letters,  have  found  their  way, 
through  devious  paths,  to  our  several  historical  soci- 
eties ;  where  they  have  been  lost  in  oblivion,  hidden 
through  churlishness,  displayed  in  pride,  or  offered 
in  helpfulness,  as  suited  the  various  humors  of  their 
custodians.  To  the  safe,  wise,  and  generous  guardi- 
anship of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society  fell  a 
collection  of  letters  of  the  years  1663  to  1684,  writ- 
ten from  London  by  the  merchant  John  Hall  to 
his  mother,  Madam  Rebekah  Symonds,  who,  after 
a  fourth  matrimonial  venture,  —  successful,  as  were 
all  her  marriages,  —  was  living,  in  what  must  have 
seemed  painful  seclusion   to  any    Londoner,  in  the 


A   Vain   Puritan   Grandmother  141 

struggling  little  New  England  hamlet  of  Ipswich, 
Massachusetts. 

I  wish  to  note  as  a  light-giving  fact  in  regard  to 
these  letters  that  the  Halls  were  as  happy  in  marry- 
ing as  in  letter-writing,  and  as  assiduous.  They 
married  early  ;  they  married  late.  And  by  each  mar- 
riage increased  wonderfully  either  the  number  of 
descendants,  or  of  influential  family  connections, 
who  were  often   also  business  associates. 

Madam  Symonds  had  four  excellent  husbands, 
more  than  her  share  of  good  fortune.  She  married 
Henry  Byley  in  1636;  John  Hall  in  1641  ;  Will- 
iam Worcester  in  1650;  and  Deputy  Governor 
Symonds  in  1663.  She  was,  therefore,  in  1664, 
scarcely  more  than  a  bride  (if  one  may  be  so 
termed  for  the  fourth  time),  when  many  costly 
garments  were  sent  to  her  by  her  devoted  and  lov- 
ing son,  John  Hall ;  she  was  then  about  forty-eight 
years  of  age.  Her  husband,  Governor  Symonds, 
was  a  gentle  and  noble  old  Puritan  gentleman,  a 
New  Englishman  of  the  best  type  ;  a  Christian  of 
missionary  spirit  who  wrote  that  he  "  could  go  sing- 
ing to  his  grave"  if  he  felt  sure  that  the  poor  be- 
nighted Indians  were  won  to  Christ.  His  stepson, 
John  Hall,  never  failed  in  respectful  and  affection- 
ate messages  to  him  and  sedately  appropriate  gifts, 
such  as  "men's  knives."  Governor  Symonds  had 
two  sons  and  six  married  daughters  by  two  —  or 
three- — previous  marriages.  He  died  in  Boston  in 
1678. 

A  triangle  of  mutual  helpfulness  and  prosperity 
was   formed   by    England,   New    England,   and   the 


I42 


Two  Centuries  of  Costume 


Barbadoes  in  this 
widespread  relation- 
ship of  the  Hull 
family  in  matri- 
mony, business,  kin, 
and  friendly  allies. 
England  sent  to  the 
Barbadoes  English 
trading  -  stuffs  and 
judiciously  cheap 
and  attractive  trink- 
ets. The  islands 
sent  to  New  Eng- 
land sugar  and  mo- 
lasses, and  also  the 
young  children  born 
in  the  islands,  to  be 
educated  in  Boston 
schools  ere  they 
went  to  English  uni- 
versities, or  were 
presented  in  the 
English  court  and 
London  society. 
There  was  one  school 
in  Boston  estab- 
lished expressly  for 
the  children  of  the 
Barbadoes  planters. 
You  may  read  in  a  later  chapter  upon  the  dress 
of  old-time  children  of  some  naughty  grandchildren 
of  John  Hall  who  were  sent  to  this  Boston  school 


A  Puritan  Dame. 


A  Vain  Puritan  Grandmother  143 

and  to  the  care  of  another  oft-married  grandmother. 
In  this  triangle,  New  England  returned  to  the  Bar- 
badoes  non-perishable  and  most  lucrative  rum  and 
salt  codfish  —  codfish  for  the  many  fast-days  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  ;  New  England  rum  to  ex- 
change with  profit  for  slaves,  coffee,  and  sugar.  The 
Barbadoes  and  New  England  sent  good,  solid  Spanish 
coin  to  England,  both  for  investment  and  domestic 
purchases  ;  and  England  sent  to  New  England  what 
is  of  value  to  us  in  this  book  —  the  latest  fashions. 

When  I  ponder  on  the  conditions  of  life  in  Ips- 
wich at  the  time  these  letters  were  written  —  the 
few  good  houses,  the  small  amount  of  tilled  land, 
the  entire  lack  of  all  the  elegancies  of  social  life; 
when  I  think  upon  the  proximity  and  ferocity  of 
the  Indian  tribes  and  the  ever  present  terror  of  their 
invasion;  when  I  picture  the  gloom,  the  dread,  the 
oppression  of  the  vast,  close-lying,  primeval  forest, 
—  then  the  rich  articles  of  dress  and  elaborate  expla- 
nation of  the  modes  despatched  by  John  Hall  to  his 
mother  would  seem  more  than  incongruous,  they 
would  be  ridiculous,  did  I  not  know  what  a  factor 
dress  was  in  public  life  in  that  day. 

Poor  Madam  Symonds  dreaded  deeply  lest  The 
Plague  be  sent  to  her  in  her  fine  garments  from 
London  ;  and  her  dutiful  son  wrote  her  to  have  no 
fear,  that  he  bought  her  finery  himself,  in  safe 
shops,  from  reliable  dealers,  and  kept  all  for  a 
month  in  his  own  home  where  none  had  been  in- 
fected. But  she  must  have  had  fear  of  disaster  and 
death  more  intimately  menacing  to  her  home  than 
was  The  Plague. 


[44  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

She  had  seen  the  career  of  genial  Master  Rowland- 
son,  a  neighbor's  son,  full  of  naughtiness,  fun,  and 
life.  While  an  undergraduate  at  Harvard  College 
he  had  written  in  doggerel  what  was  termed  pom- 
pously a  "  scandalous  libell,"  and  he  had  pinned  it 
on  the  door  of  Ipswich  Meeting-house,  along  with 
the  tax-collector's  and  road-mender's  notices  and 
the  announcement  of  intending  marriages,  and  the 
grinning  wolves'  heads  brought  for  reward.  For  this 
prank  he  had  been  soundly  whipped  by  the  college 
president  on  the  College  Green  ;  but  it  did  not  pre- 
vent his  graduating  with  honor  at  the  head  of  his 
class.  He  was  valedictorian,  class-orator,  class-poet 
—  in  fact,  I  may  say  that  he  had  full  honors.  (1 
have  to  add  also  that  in  his  case  honors  were  easy  ; 
for  his  class,  of  the  year  1652,  had  but  one  graduate, 
himself.)  The  gay,  mischievous  boy  had  become  a 
faithful,  zealous,  noble  preacher  to  the  Puritan  church 
in  the  neighboring  town  of  Lancaster;  and  in  one 
cruel  night,  in  1676,  his  home  was  destroyed,  the 
whole  town  made  desolate,  his  parishioners  slaugh- 
tered, and  his  wife,  Esther  Rowlandson,  carried  off 
by  the  savage  red-men,  from  whom  she  was  bravely 
rescued  by  my  far-off  grandfather,  John  Hoar. 
Read  the  thrilling  story  of  her  "  captivation  "  and 
rescue,  and  then  think  of  Madam  Symonds's  finery 
in  her  gilt  trunk  in  the  near-by  town.  For  four  years 
the  valley  of  the  Nashua  —  blood-stained,  fire-black- 
ened—  lay  desolate  and  unsettled  before  Madam  Sy- 
monds's eyes  ;  then  settlers  slowly  crept  in.  But  for 
fifty  years  Ipswich  was  not  deemed  a  safe  home  nor 
free  from  dread  of  cruel  Indians  ;  "  Lovewell's  War  " 


A  Vain  Puritan   Grandmother  145 

dragged  on  in  1726.  But  mantuas  and  masks, 
whisks  and  drolls,  were  just  as  eagerly  sought  by  the 
governor's  wife  as  if  Esther  Rowlandson's  capture 
had  been  a  dream. 

There  was  a  soured,  abusive,  intolerant  old  fellow 
in  New  England  in  the  year  1700,  a  "vituperative 
epithetizer,"  ready  to  throw  mud  on  everything 
around  him  (though  not  working  —  to  my  knowl- 
edge—  in  cleaning  out  any  mud-holes).  He  was 
not  abusive  because  he  was  a  Puritan,  but  because 
"it  was  his  nature  to."  He  styled  himself  a  "Sim- 
ple Cobbler,"  and  he  announced  himself  "  willing  to 
Mend  his  Native  Country,  lamentably  tattered  both 
in  the  upper  Leather  and  in  the  Sole,  with  all  the 
Honest  Stitches  he  can  take,"  but  he  took  out  his 
aid  in  loud  hammering  of  his  lapstone  and  noisy 
protesting  against  all  other  footwear  than  his  own. 
I  fancy  he  thought  himself  another  Stubbes.  I 
know  of  no  whole  soles  he  set,  nor  any  holes  he 
mended,  and  his  "  Simple "  ideas  are  so  involved 
in  expression,  in  such  twisted  sentences,  and  with 
such  "strange  Ink-pot  termes  "  and  so  many  Latin 
quotations  and  derivatives,  that  I  doubt  if  many  sen- 
sible folk  knew  what  he  meant,  even  in  his  own  day. 
His  words  have  none  of  the  directness,  the  force,  the 
interest  that  have  the  writings  of  old  Stubbes.  Such 
words  as  nugiperous,  perquisquilian,  ill-shapen-shot- 
ten,  nudistertian,  futulous,  overturcased,  quasmatry, 
surquedryes,  prodromie,  would  seem  to  apply  ill  to 
woman's  attire  ;  they  really  fall  wide  of  the  mark  if 
intended  as  weapons,  but  it  was  to  such  vain  dames 
as    the    governor's    wife    that    the   Simple    Cobbler 


146  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

applied  them.  Some  of  the  ministers  of  the  colony, 
terrified  by  the  Indian  outbreaks,  gloomily  held  the 
vanity  and  extravagance  of  dames  and  goodwives  as 
responsible  for  them  all.  Others,  with  broader 
minds,  could  discern  that  both  the  open  and  the  subtle 
influence  of  good  clothes  was  needed  in  the  new  com- 
munity. They  gave  an  air  of  cheerfulness,  of  sub- 
stance, of  stability,  which  is  of  importance  in  any  new 
venture.  For  the  governor's  wife  to  dress  richly  and 
in  the  best  London  modes  added  lustre  to  the  gov- 
ernor's office.  And  when  the  excitement  had  quieted 
and  the  sullen  Indian  sachem  and  his  tawny  braves 
stalked  through  the  little  town  in  their  gay,  barbaric 
trappings,  they  were  sensible  that  Madam  Symonds's 
embroidered  satin  manteau  was  rich  and  costly,  even 
if  they  did  not  know  what  we  know,  that  it  was  the 
top  of  the  mode. 

Governor  Symonds's  home  in  Ipswich  was  on  the 
ground  where  the  old  seminary  building  now  stands  ; 
but  the  happy  married  pair  spent  much  of  the  time 
at  his  farm-house  on  Argilla  Farm,  on  Heart-Break 
Hill,  by  Labor-in-vain  Creek,  which  was  also  in 
Ipswich  County.  This  lonely  farm,  so  sad  in  name, 
was  the  only  dwelling-place  in  that  region  ;  it  was  so 
remote  that  when  Indian  assault  was  daily  feared,  the 
general  court  voted  to  station  there  a  guard  of  sol- 
diers at  public  expense  because  the  governor  was  "  so 
much  in  the  country's  service."  He  says  distinctly, 
however,  concerning  the  bargain  in  the  purchase  of 
Argilla  Farm,  that  his  wife  was  well  content  with  it. 

There  were  also  intimate  personal  considerations 
which  would  apparently  render  so  luxurious  a  ward- 


Penelope  Winslow. 


A  Vain   Puritan   Grandmother  147 

robe  unnecessary  and  unsuitable.  The  age  and 
health  of  the  wearer  might  generally  be  held  to  be 
sufficient  reason  for  indifference  to  such  costly,  deli- 
cate, and  gay  finery.  When  Madam  Symonds  was 
fifty-eight  years  old,  in  1674,  her  son  wrote,  "Oh, 
Good  Mother,  grieved  am  I  to  learn  that  Craziness 
creeps  upon  you,  yet  am  I  glad  that  you  have  Faith 
to  look  beyond  this  Life."  Craziness  had  originally 
no  meaning  of  infirmity  of  mind  ;  it  meant  feeble- 
ness, weakness  of  body.  Her  letters  evidently  in- 
formed him  of  failing  health,  but  even  that  did  not 
hinder  the  export  of  London  finery. 

Governor  Symonds's  estate  at  his  death  was  under 
^3000,  and  Argilla  Farm  was  valued  only  at 
^150;  yet  Madam  had  a  "  Manto  "  which  is 
marked  distinctly  in  her  son's  own  handwriting  as 
costing  ^30.  She  had  money  of  her  own,  and  es- 
tates in  England,  of  which  John  Hall  kept  an  account, 
and  with  the  income  of  which  he  made  these  pur- 
chases. This  manteau  was  of  flowered  satin,  and 
had  silver  clasps  and  a  rich  pair  of  embroidered  satin 
sleeves  to  wear  with  it ;  it  was  evidently  like  a  sleeve- 
less cape.  We  must  always  remember  that  seven- 
teenth-century accounts  must  be  multiplied  by  five 
to  give  twentieth-century  values.  Even  this  valua- 
tion is  inadequate.  Therefore  the  ^"30  paid  for  the 
manteau  would  to-day  be  ^150;  $800  would  nearly 
represent  the  original  value.  As  it  was  sent  in  early 
autumn  it  was  evidently  a  winter  garment,  and  it 
must  have  been  furred  with  sable  to  be  so  costly. 

In  the  early  inventories  of  all  the  colonies  "  a  pair 
of  sleeves  "  is  a  frequent  item,  and  to  my  delight  — 


148  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

when  so  seldom  color  is  given  —  I  have  more  than 
once  a  pair  of  green  sleeves. 

"  Thy  gown  was  of  the  grassy  green 
Thy  sleeves  of  satin  hanging  by, 
Which  made  thee  be  our  harvest  queen 
And  yet  thou  wouldst  not  love  me. 
Green  sleeves  was  all  my  joy, 
Green  sleeves  was  my  delight, 
Green  sleeves  was  my  Heart  of  Gold, 
And  who  but  Lady  Green-sleeves  !  " 

Let  me  recount  some  of"  My  Good  Son's  labors 
of  love  and  pride  in  London  shops  "  for  his  vain 
old  mother.  She  had  written  in  the  year  1675  f°r 
lawn  whisks,  but  he  is  quick  to  respond  that  she  has 
made  a  very  countrified  mistake. 

"  Lawn  whisks  is  not  now  worn  either  by  Gentil  or 
simple,  young  or  old.  Instead  whereof  I  have  bought  a 
shape  and  ruffles,  what  is  now  the  ware  of  the  bravest  as 
well  as  the  young  ones.  Such  as  goe  not  with  naked  neckes, 
wear  a  black  whisk  over  it.  Therefore  I  have  not  only 
bought  a  plain  one  you  sent  for,  but  also  a  Lustre  one,  such 
as  are  most  in  fashion." 

John  Hall's  "lustre  for  whisks"  was  of  course 
lustring,  or  lutestring,  a  soft  half-lustred  pure  silk 
fabric  which  was  worn  constantly  for  two  centuries. 
He  sent  his  mother  many  yards  of  it  for  her  wear. 

We  have  ample  proof  that  these  black  whisks 
were  in  general  wear  in  England.  In  an  account- 
book  of  Sarah  Fell  of  Swarthmoor  Hall  in  1673, 
are  these  items  :  "  a  black  alamode  whiske  for  Sister 
Rachel ;  a  round  whiske  for  Susanna ;  a  little  black 


A  Vain   Puritan  Grandmother  149 

whiske  for  myself."  This  English  Quaker  sends 
also  a  colored  stuff  manteo  to  her  sister;  scores  of 
English  inventories  of  women's  wardrobes  contain 
precisely  similar  items  to  those  bought  by  Son  Hall. 
And  it  is  a  tribute  to  the  devotion  of  American 
women  to  the  rigid  laws  of  fashion,  even  in  that  early 
day,  to  find  that  all  whisks,  save  black  whisks  and 
lustring  ones,  disappear  at  this  date  from  colonial 
inventories  of  effects. 

She  wrote  to  him  for  a  "  side  of  plum  colored 
leather  "  for  her  shoes.  This  was  a  matter  of  much 
concern  to  him,  not  at  all  because  this  leather  was  a 
bit  gay  or  extravagant,  or  frail  wear  for  an  elderly 
grandmother,  but  because  it  was  not  the  very  latest 
thing  in  leather.      He  writes  anxiously  :  — 

"  Secondly  you  sent  for  Damson-Coloured  Spanish 
Leather  for  Womans  Shoes.  But  there  is  noe  Spanish 
Leather  of  that  Colour ;  and  Turkey  Leather  is  coloured 
on  the  grain  side  only,  both  of  which  are  out  of  use  for 
Women's  Shoes.  Therefore  I  bought  a  Skin  of  Leather 
that  is  all  the  mode  for  Women's  Shoes.  All  that  I  fear 
is,  that  it  is  too  thick.  But  my  Coz.  Eppes  told  me  yt  such 
thin  ones  as  are  here  generally  used,  would  by  rain  and 
snow  in  N.  England  presently  be  rendered  of  noe  service 
and  therefore  persuaded  me  to  send  this,  which  is  stronger 
than  ordinary.  And  if  the  Shoemaker  fit  it  well,  may  not 
be  uneasy." 

Perhaps  his  anxious  offices  and  advices  in  regard 
to  fans  show  more  curiously  than  other  quotations, 
the  insistent  attitude  of  the  New  England  mind  in 
regard  to  the  latest  fashions.  I  cannot  to-day  con- 
ceive why  any  woman,  young  or  old,  could    have 


150  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

been  at  all  concerned  in  Ipswich  in  1675  as  to  which 
sort  of  fan  she  carried,  or  what  was  carried  in  Lon- 
don, yet  good  Son  John  writes  :  — 

"  As  to  the  feathered  fan,  I  should  also  have  found  it  in 
mv  heart  to  let  it  alone,  because  none  but  very  grave  per- 
sons (and  of  them  very  few)  use  it.  That  now  'tis  grown 
almost  as  obsolete  as  Russets  and  more  rare  to  be  seen  than 
a  yellow  Hood.  But  the  Thing  being  Civil  and  not  very 
dear,  Remembering  that  in  the  years  64  and  68,  if  I  mis- 
take not,  you  had  Two  Fans  sent,  I  have  bought  one  now 
on  purpose  for  you,  and  I  hope  you  will  be  pleased." 

Evidently  the  screen-fan  of  Pocahontas's  day  was 
no  longer  a  novelty.  His  mother  had  had  far  more 
fans  that  he  remembered.  In  1664  two  "  Tortis 
shell  fanns  "  had  gone  across  seas  ;  one  had  cost  five 
shillings,  the  other  ten  shillings.  The  following 
year  came  a  black  feather  fan  with  silver  handle,  and 
two  tortoise-shell  fans  ;  in  1666  two  more  tortoise- 
shell  fans;  in  1688  another  feather  fan,  and  so  on. 
These  many  fans  may  have  been  disposed  of  as  gifts 
to  others,  but  the  entire  trend  of  the  son's  letters,  as 
well  as  his  express  directions,  would  show  that  all 
these  articles  were  for  his  mother's  personal  use. 
When  finery  was  sent  for  madam's  daughter,  it  was 
so  specified;  in  1675,  wnen  tne  daughter  became  a 
bride,  Brother  John  sent  her  her  wedding  gloves, 
ever  a  gift  of  sentiment.  A  pair  of  wedding  gloves 
of  that  date  lies  now  before  me.  They  are  mitts 
rather  than  gloves,  being  fingerless.  They  are  of 
white  kid,  and  are  twenty-two  inches  long.  They 
are  very  wide  at  the  top,  and  have  three  drawing- 


A  Vain  Puritan  Grandmother 


5i 


strings  with  gilt  tassels  ;  these  are  run  in  welts  about 
two  inches  apart,  and  were  evidently  drawn  into  puffs 
above  the  elbow  when  worn.  A  full  edging  of  white 
Swiss  lace  and  a  pretty  design  of  dots  made  in  gold 
thread  on  the  back  of  the  hand,  form  altogether  a 
very  costly,  elegant,  and  decorative  article  of  dress. 
1  should  fancy  they  cost  several  pounds.  Men's 
gloves  were  equally  rich.  Here  are  the  gold-fringed 
gloves  of  Governor  Leverett  worn  in  1640. 


Gold-fringed  Gloves  of  Governor  Leverett. 

Of  course  the  only  head-gear  of  Madam  Symonds 
for  outdoor  wear  was  a  hood.  Hats  were  falling  in 
disfavor.  I  shall  tell  in  a  special  chapter  of  the 
dominance  at  this  date  and  the  importance  of  the 
French  hood.  Its  heavy  black  folds  are  shown  in 
the  portraits  of  Rebecca  Rawson  (facing  page  66), 
of  Madam  Simeon  Stoddard  (facing  page  76),  and 
on  other  heads  in  this  book.  Such  a  hood  probably 
covered   Madam  Symonds's  head  heavily  and  fully, 


152  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

whene'er  she  walked  abroad  ;  certainly  it  did  when 
she  rode  a  pillion-back.  She  had  other  fashionable 
hoods  —  all  the  fashionable  hoods,  in  fact,  that  were 
worn  in  England  at  that  time;  hoods  of  lustring, 
of  tiffany,  of  "bird's-eye"  —  precisely  the  same  as 
had  Madam  Pepys,  and  one  of  spotted  gauze,  the 
last  a  pretty  vanity  for  summer  wear.  We  may 
remember,  in  fact,  that  Madam  Symonds  was  a 
contemporary  —  across-seas  —  of  Madam  Pepys, 
and  wore  the  same  garments  ;  only  she  apparently 
had  richer  and  more  varied  garments  than  did  that 
beautiful  young  woman  whose  husband  was  in  the 
immediate  employ  of  the  king. 

Arthur  Abbott  was  the  agent  in  Boston  through 
whom  this  London  finery  and  flummery  was  deliv- 
ered to  Madam  Symonds  in  safety ;  and  it  is  an 
amusing  side-light  upon  social  life  in  the  colony  to 
know  that  in  1675  Abbott's  wife  was  "presented 
before  the  court"  for  wearing  a  silk  hood  above  her 
station,  and  her  husband  paid  the  fine.  Knowing 
womankind,  and  knowing  the  skill  and  cunning  in 
needlework  of  women  of  that  day,  I  cannot  resist 
building  up  a  little  imaginative  story  around  this 
"  presentment  "  and  fine.  I  believe  that  the  pretty 
young  woman  could  not  put  aside  the  fascination 
of  all  the  beautiful  London  hoods  consigned  to  her 
husband  for  the  old  lady  at  Ipswich  ;  I  suspect  she 
tried  all  the  finery  on,  and  that  she  copied  one  hood 
for  herself  so  successfully  and  with  such  telling  effect 
that  its  air  of  high  fashion  at  once  caught  the  eye 
and  met  with  the  reproof  of  the  severe  Boston 
magistrates.      She  was  the  last  woman,  I  believe,  to 


A  Vain   Puritan  Grandmother  153 

be    fined    under    the    colonial    sumptuary    laws    of 
Massachusetts. 

The  colors  of  Madam  Symonds's  garments  were 
seldom  given,  but  I  doubt  that  they  were  "  sad- 
coloured  "  or  "  grave  of  colour  "  as  we  find  Gov- 
ernor Winthrop's  orders  for  his  wife.  One  lustring 
hood  was  brown  ;  and  frequently  green  ribbons  were 
sent ;  also  many  yards  of  scarlet  and  pink  gauze, 
which  seem  the  very  essence  of  juvenility.  Her 
son  writes  a  list  of  gifts  to  her  and  the  members  of 
her  family  from  his  own  people  :  — 

"  A  light  violet-colored  Petti-Coat  is  my  wife's  token  to 
you.  The  Petti-Coat  was  bought  for  my  wife's  mother 
and  scarcely  worn.  This  my  wife  humbly  presents  to  you, 
requesting  your  acceptance  of  it,  for  your  own  wearing,  as 
being  Grave  and  suitable  for  a  Person  of  Quality." 

Even  a  half-worn  petticoat  was  a  considerable 
gift ;  for  petticoats  were  both  costly  and  of  infinite 
needlework.  Even  the  wealthiest  folk  esteemed  a 
gift  of  partly  worn  clothing,  when  materials  were  so 
rich.     Letters  of  deep  gratitude  were  sent  in  thanks. 

The  variety  of  stuffs  used  in  them  was  great. 
Some  of  these  are  wholly  obsolete ;  even  the  mean- 
ing of  their  names  is  lost.  In  an  inventory  of  1644, 
of  a  citizen  of  Plymouth  there  was,  for  instance,  "a 
petticoate  of  phillip  &  cheny  "  worth  £1.  Much 
of  the  value  of  these  petticoats  was  in  the  hand- 
work bestowed  upon  them ;  they  were  both  em- 
broidered and  elaborately  quilted.  About  1730,  in 
the  Van  Cortlandt  family,  a  woman  was  paid  at  one 
time  £2    $s.   for  quilting,  a  large  amount  for  that 


£4  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 


Embroidered  Petticoat  Band. 


day.      Often   we    find    items    of    fifteen    or    twenty- 
shillings   for  quilting   a   petticoat. 

The  handsomest  petticoats  were  of  quilted  silk 
or  satin.  No  pattern  was  so  elaborate,  no  amount 
of  work  so  large,  that  it  could  dismay  the  heart  or 
tire  the  fingers  of  an  eighteenth-century  needle- 
woman. One  yellow  satin  petticoat  has  a  lining  of 
stout  linen.  These  are  quilted  together  in  an  ex- 
quisite irregular  design  of  interlacing  ribbons,  slen- 
der vines,  and  long,  narrow  leaves,  all  stuffed  with 
white  cord.  Though  the  general  effect  of  this 
pattern  is  very  regular,  an  examination  shows  it  is 
not  a  set  design,  but  must  have  been  drawn  as  well 
as  worked  by  the  maker.      Another  petticoat  has  a 


A  Vain   Puritan   Grandmother  155 

curious  design  made  with  two  shades  of  blue  silk 
cord  sewed  on  in  a  pattern.  Another  of  infinite 
work  has  a  design  outlined  in  tiny  rolls  of  satin. 

These  petticoats  had  many  flat  trimmings;  laces 
of  silver,  gold,  or  silk  thread  were  used,  galloons  and 
orrice.  Tufts  of  fringed  silk  were  dotted  in  clusters 
and  made  into  fly-fringe.  Bridget  Neal,  writing  in 
1685  to  her  sister,  says  :  — 

"  I  am  told  las  is  yused  on  petit-coats.  Three  fringes 
is  much  yused,  but  they  are  not  set  on  the  petcot  strait, 
but  in  waves  ;  it  does  not  look  well,  unless  all  the  fringes 
yused  that  fashion  is  the  plane  twisted  fring  not  very  deep. 
I  hear  some  has  nine  fringes  sett  in  this  fashion." 

Anxiety  to  please  his  honored  mother,  and  desire 
that  she  should  be  dressed  in  the  top  of  the  mode, 
show  in  every  letter  of  John  Hall :  — 

"  I  bought  your  muffs  of  my  Coz.  Jno.  Rolfe  who  tells 
me  they  are  worth  more  money  than  I  gave  for  them.  You 
desired  yours  Modish  yet  Long  ;  but  here  with  us  they  are 
now  much  shorter.  These  were  made  a  Purpose  for  you. 
As  to  yr  Silk  Flowered  Manto,  I  hope  it  may  please  you  ; 
Tis  not  the  Mode  to  lyne  you  now  at  all ;  but  if  you  like 
to  have  it  soe,  any  silke  will  serve,  and  may  be  done  at  yr 
pleasure." 

In  1663  Pepys  notes  (with  his  customary  delight 
at  a  new  fashion,  mingled  with  fear  that  thereby  he 
might  be  led  into  more  expense)  that  ladies  at  the 
play  put  on  "  vizards  which  hid  the  whole  face,  and 
had  become  a  great  fashion  ;  and  so  to  the  Exchange 
to  buy  a  Vizard  for  my  wife."     Soon  he  added  a 


156  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

French  mask,  which  led  to  sonic  unpleasant  encoun- 
ters for  Mrs.  Pepys  with  dissolute  courtiers  on  the 
street.  The  plays  in  London  were  then  so  hold 
and  so  bad  that  we  cannot  wonder  at  the  masks 
of  the  play-goers.  The  masks  concealed  constant 
blushes;  but  wearers  and  hearers  did  not  stay  away, 
for  neither  eyes  nor  ears  were  covered  by  the  mask. 
Busino  tells  of  a  woman  at  the  theatre  all  in  yellow 
and  scarlet,  with  two  masks  and  three  pairs  of  gloves, 
worn  one  pair  over  the  other.  Suddenly  out  came 
disappointing  Oueen  Anne  with  her  royal  com- 
mand that  the  plays  be  refined  and  reformed,  and 
then  masks  were  abandoned. 

Masks  were  in  those  years  in  constant  wear  in 
the  French  court  and  society,  as  a  protection  to  the 
complexion  when  walking  or  riding.  Sometimes 
plain  glass  was  fitted  in  the  eye-holes.  French 
masks  had  wires  which  fastened  behind  the  ears, 
or  a  mouthpiece  of  silver ;  or  they  had  an  ingenious 
and  simple  stay  in  the  form  of  two  strings  at  the 
corners  of  the  mouth-opening  of  the  mask.  These 
strings  ended  in  a  silver  button  or  glass  bead. 
With  a  bead  held  firmly  in  either  corner  of  her 
mouth,  the  mask-wearer  could  talk.  These  vizards 
are  seen  in  old  English  wood-cuts,  often  hanging 
by  the  side,  fastened  to  the  belt  with  a  small  cord 
or  chain.  They  brought  forth  the  bitter  denuncia- 
tions of  the  old  Puritan  Stubbes.  He  writes  in 
his  Anatomie  of  Abuses  :  — 

"  When  they  vse  to  ride  abroad,  they  haue  visors  made 
of  ueluet  (or  in  my  iudgment  they  may  rather  be  called 
inuisories)   wherewith    they   couer    all    their    faces,  hauing 


Blue  Brocade  Gown  and  Quilted  Satin  Petticoat. 


A  Vain   Puritan  Grandmother  157 

holes  made  in  them  agaynst  their  eies,  whereout  they  looke. 
So  that  if  a  man  that  knew  not  their  guise  before,  shoulde 
chaunce  to  meete  one  of  theme,  he  would  thinke  he  mette 
a  monster  or  a  deuill ;  for  face  he  can  see  none,  but  two 
broad  holes  against  their  eyes  with  glasses  in  them." 

Masks  were  certainly  worn  to  a  considerable  ex- 
tent in  America.  As  early  as  1645,  masks  were 
forbidden  in  Plymouth,  Massachusetts,  "  for  im- 
proper purposes."  When  you  think  of  the  Plym- 
outh of  that  year,  its  few  houses  and  inhabitants, 
its  desperate  struggle  to  hold  its  place  at  all  as  a 
community,  the  narrow  means  of  its  citizens,  the 
comparatively  scant  wardrobes  of  the  wives  and 
daughters,  this  restriction  as  to  mask-wearing  seems 
a  grim  jest.  They  were  for  sale  in  Salem  and 
Boston,  black  velvet  masks  worth  two  shillings 
each  ;  but  these  towns  were  more  flourishing  than 
Plymouth.  And  New  York  dames  had  them,  and 
the  planters'  wives  of  Virginia  and  South  Carolina. 

I  suppose  Madam  Symonds  wore  her  mask  when 
she  mounted  on  a  pillion  behind  some  strong  young 
lad,  and  rode  out  to  Argilla  Farm. 

A  few  years  later  than  the  dates  when  Madam 
Symonds  was  ordering  these  fashionable  articles  of 
dress  from  England  a  rhyming  catalogue  of  a  lady's 
toilet  was  written  by  John  Evelyn  and  entitled, 
Mundus  Muliebris  or  a  Voyage  to  Mary-Land ;  it 
might  be  a  list  of  Madam  Symonds's  wardrobe. 
Some  of  the  lines  run  :  — 

"  One  gown  of  rich  black  silk,  which  odd  is 
Without  one  coloured  embroidered  boddice. 


158  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

Three  manteaux,  nor  can  Madam  less 
Provision  have  for  due  undress. 
Of  under-boddice  three  neat  pair 
Embroidered,  and  of  shoes  as  fair  ; 
Short  under  petticoats,  pure  fine, 
Some  of  Japan  stuff,  some  of  Chine, 
With  knee-high  galoon  bottomed  ; 
Another  quilted  white  and  red, 
With  a  broad  Flanders  lace  below. 
Three  night  gowns  of  rich  Indian  stuff; 
Four  cushion-cloths  are  scarce  enough. 
A  manteau  girdle,  ruby  buckle, 
And  brilliant  diamond  ring  for  knuckle. 
Fans  painted  and  perfumed  three  ; 
Three  muffs  of  ermine,  sable,  grey." 

Other  articles  of  personal  and  household  comfort 
were  gathered  in  London  shops  by  her  dutiful  son 
and  sent  to  Madam  Symonds.  The  list  is  full  of 
interest,  and  helps  to  fill  out  the  picture  of  daily 
life.  He  despatched  to  her  cloves,  nutmegs,  spices, 
eringo  roots,  "coronation"  and  stock-gilly-flower 
seed,  "  colly-flower  seed,"  hearth  brushes  (these 
came  every  year),  silver  whistles  and  several  po- 
manders and  pomander-beads,  bouquet-glasses  (which 
could  hardly  have  been  the  bosom  bottles  which 
were  worn  later),  necklaces,  amber  beads,  many  and 
varied  pins,  needles,  silk  lacings,  kid  gloves,  silver 
ink-boxes,  sealing-wax,  gilt  trunks,  fancy  boxes, 
painted  desks,  tape,  ferret,  bobbin,  bone  lace,  calico, 
gimp,  many  yards  of  ducape,  lustring,  persian,  and 
other  silk  stuffs  —  all  these  items  of  transport  show 
the  son's  devoted  selection  of  the  articles  his  mother 
wished.  Gowns  seem  never  to  have  been  sent,  but 
manteaus,  mantles,  and  "  ferrandine  "  cloaks  appear 


A  Vain   Puritan  Grandmother  159 

frequently.  Of  course  there  are  some  articles  which 
cannot  be  positively  described  to-day,  such  as  the 
"  shape,  with  ruffles  "  and  "  double  pleated  drolls  " 
and  "  lace  drolls  "  which  appear  several  times  on  the 
lists.  These  "  drolls  "  were,  I  believe,  the  "  drowlas  " 
of  Madame  de  Lange,  in  New  Amsterdam.  "  Men's 
knives  "  occasionally  were  sent,  and  "  women's 
knives  "  many  times.  These  latter  had  hafts  of 
ivory,  agate,  and  "Ellotheropian."  This  Ellothero- 
pian  or  Alleteropeain  or  Illyteropian  stone  has  been 
ever  a  great  puzzle  to  me  until  in  another  letter  I 
chanced  to  find  the  spelling  Hellotyropian  ;  then  I 
knew  the  real  word  was  the  Heliotropium  of  the 
ancients,  our  blood-stone.  It  was  a  favorite  stone 
of  the  day  not  only  for  those  fancy-handled  knives, 
but  for  seals,  finger-rings  and  other  forms  of  orna- 
ment. 

A  few  books  were  on  the  list,  —  a  Greek  Lexicon 
ordered  as  a  gift  for  a  student;  a  very  costly  Bible, 
bound  in  velvet,  with  silver  clasps,  the  expense  of 
which  was  carefully  detailed  down  to  the  Indian  silk 
for  the  inner-end  leaves  ;  "  Dod  on  Commandments  — 
my  Ant  Jane  said  you  had  a  fancie  for  it,  and  I 
have  bound  it  in  green  plush  for  you."  Fancy  any 
one  having  a  fancy  for  Dod  on  anything  !  and  fancy 
Dod  in  green  plush  covers  ! 


CHAPTER    V 

THE    EVOLUTION    OF    COATS    AND    WAISTCOATS 

This  day  the  King  began  to  put  on  his  vest ;  and  I  did  see 
several  persons  of  the  House  of  Lords  and  Commons  too,  great 
courtiers  who  are  in  it,  being  a  long  cassock  close  to  the  body,  of 
long  cloth,  pinked  with  white  silk  under  it,  and  a  coat  over  it, 
and  the  legs  ruffled  with  white  ribbon  like  a  pigeon  s  leg ;  and 
upon  the  whole  I  wish  the  King  may  keep  it,  for  it  is  a  very 
fine  and  handsome  garment. 

—  "Diary,"  Samuel  Pepys,  October  8,  1666. 

Fashion  then  was  counted  a  disease  and  horses  died  of  it. 

—  "The  Gulls  Hornbook,"  Andrew  Dekker,  1609. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE    EVOLUTION    OF    COATS    AND    WAISTCOATS 

|OTH  word  and  garment  —  coat  —  are 
of  curious  interest,  one  as  a  philologi- 
cal study,  the  other  as  an  evolution. 
A  singular  transfer  of  meaning  from 
cot  or  cote,  a  house  and  shelter,  to  the 
word  coat,  used  for  a  garment,  is  duplicated  in 
some  degree  in  chasuble,  casule,  and  cassock ;  the 
words  body,  and  bodice  ;  and  corse  or  corpse,  and 
corselet  and  corset.  The  word  coat,  meaning  a 
garment  for  men  for  covering  the  upper  part  of 
the  body,  has  been  in  use  for  centuries ;  but  of 
very  changeable  and  confusing  usage,  for  it  also  con- 
stantly meant  petticoat.  The  garment  itself  was  a 
puzzle,  for  many  years ;  most  bewildering  of  all 
the  attire  which  was  worn  by  the  first  colonists  was 
the  elusive,  coatlike  over-garment  called  in  shipping- 
lists,  tailors'  orders,  household  inventories,  and  other 
legal  and  domestic  records  a  doublet,  a  jerkin,  a 
jacket,  a  cassock,  a  paltock,  a  coat,  a  horseman's 
coat,  an  upper-coat,  and  a  buff-coat.  All  these  gar- 
ments resembled  each  other ;  all  closed  with  a  single 
row  of  buttons  or  points  or  hooks  and  eyes.  There 
was  not  a  double-breasted  coat  in  the  Mayflower^  nor 
on  any  man  in  any  of  the  colonies  for  many  years  ; 
163 


164 


Two   Centuries  of  Costume 


they  hadn't  been  invented.      Let  me  attempt  to  de- 
fine these  several  coatlike  garments. 

In  1697  a  jerkin  was  described  by  Randle  Holme 
as  "a  kind  of  jacket  or  upper  doublet,  with  four 
skirts  or  laps."      These  laps  were  made  by  slits  up 

from  the  hem 
to  the  belt-line, 
and  varied  in 
number,  but 
four  on  each 
side  was  a  usual 
number,  or 
there  might  be 
a  slit  up  the 
back,  and  one 
on  each  hip, 
which  would  af- 
ford four  laps  in 
all.  Mr.  Knight, 
in  his  notes  on 
Shakespere's 
use  of  the  word, 
conjectures  that 
the  jerkin  was 
generally  worn 
over  the  doublet ;  but  one  guess  is  as  good  as  an- 
other, and  I  guess  it  was  not.  I  agree,  however,  with 
his  surmise  that  the  two  garments  were  constantly 
confounded ;  in  truth  it  is  not  a  surmise,  it  is  a  fact. 
Shakespere  expressed  the  situation  when  he  said  in 
The  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona,  "  My  jerkin  is  a 
doublet;"  and  I  fancy  there  was  slight  difference  in 


A  Plain  Jerkin. 


The  Evolution  of  Coats  and  Waistcoats      165 

the  garments,  save  that  in  the  beginning  the  doublet 
was  always  of  two  thicknesses,  as  its  name  indi- 
cates ;  and  it  was  wadded. 

As  the  jerkin  was  often  minutely  slashed,  it  could 
scarcely  have  been  wadded ;  though  it  may  have 
had  a  lining  for  special  display  through  the  slashes. 

A  jerkin  had  no  skirts  in  our  modern  sense  of 
the  word,  —  a  piece  set  on  at  the  waist-line,  —  nor 
could  it  on  that  account  be  what  we  term  a  coat, 
nor  was  it  a  coat,  nor  was  it  what  the  colonists 
deemed  a  coat. 

The  old  Dutch  word  is  jurkken,  and  it  was  often 
thus  spelt,  which  has  led  some  to  deem  it  a  Dutch 
name  and  article  of  dress.  But  then  it  was  also 
spelt  irkin,  ircken,  jorken,  jorgen,  erkyn,  and  ergoin  — 
which  are  not  Dutch  nor  any  other  tongue.  In- 
deed, under  the  name  ergoin  I  wonder  that  we  rec- 
ognize it  or  that  it  knew  itself.  A  jerkin  was  often 
of  leather  like  a  buff-coat,  but  not  always  so. 

Sir  Richard  Saltonstall  wears  a  buff-coat,  with 
handsome  sword-belt,  or  trooping-belt,  and  rich 
gloves.  His  portrait  faces  page  18.  As  we  look 
at  his  fine  countenance  we  think  of  Hawthorne's 
words  :  — 

"  What  dignitary  is  this  crossing  to  greet  the  Governor. 
A  stately  personage  in  velvet  cloak  —  with  ample  beard 
and  a  gold  band  across  his  breast.  He  has  the  authorita- 
tive port  of  one  who  has  filled  the  highest  civic  position  in 
the  first  of  cities.  Of  all  men  in  the  world,  we  should 
least  expect  to  meet  the  Lord  Mayor  of  London  —  as  Sir 
Richard  Saltonstall  has  been  once  and  again  —  in  a  forest- 
bordered  settlement  in  the  western  wilderness." 


i  66  I  wo  Centuries  of  Costume 

A  fine  buff-coat  and  a  huff' coat  sleeve  arc  given 
in   the   chapter   upon    Armor. 

All  the  curly  colonial  inventories  of  wearing-ap- 
parel contain  doublets.  Richard  Sawyer  died  in 
[648  in  Windsor,  Connecticut;  he  was  a  plain 
average  "Goodman  Citizen."  A  part  of  his  ap- 
parel  was  thus  inventoried:  — 

£    s.     d 

1  musck-colour'd  cloth  doublitt  &  breeches.      .  1 

1  bucks  leather  doublitt I2 

1  calves  leather  doublitt 6 

I   liver-colour'd  doublitt  &  jacket  &  breeches      .  7 

1  haire-colour'd  doublitt  &  jackett  &  breeches  .  5 

1  paire  canvas  drawers 16 

I  olde  eoate.       1   paire  old  gray  breeches        .      .  5 

1  stuffe  jackett 26 

William  Kempe  of  "  Duxborrow,"  a  settler  of 
importance,  died  in  1641.  His  wardrobe  was 
more  varied,  and  ample  and  rich.  He  left  two 
buff-coats  and  leather  doublets  with  silver  buttons; 
cloth  doublets,  three  horsemen's  coats,  "  frize  jer- 
kines,"  three  cassocks,  two  cloaks. 

Of  course  we  turn  to  Stubbes  to  see  what  he  can 
say  for  or  against  doublets.  His  outcry  here  is 
against  their  size;  and  those  who  know  the  "great 
pease-cod-bellied  doublets"  of  Elizabeth's  day  will 
agree  with  him  that  they  look  as  if  a  man' were 
wholly  gone  to  "  gourmandice  and  gluttonie." 

Stubbes  has  a  very  good  list  of  coats  and  jerkins 
in  which  he  gives  incidentally  an  excellent  descrip- 
tion by  which  we  may  know  a  mandillion  :  — 


The  Evolution  of  Coats  and  Waistcoats      167 

"  Their  coates  and  jerkins  as  they  be  diuers  in  colours 
so  be  they  diuers  in  fashions  ;  for  some  be  made  with  col- 
lars, some  without,  some  close  to  the  body,  some  loose, 
which  they  call  mandilians,  couering  the  whole  body  down 
to  the  thigh,  like  bags  or  sacks,  that  were  drawne  ouer  them, 
hiding  the  dimensions  and  lineaments  of  the  body.  Some 
are  buttoned  down  the  breast,  some  vnder  the  arme,  and 
some  down  the  backe,  some  with  flaps  over  the  brest,  some 
without,  some  with  great  sleeves,  some  with  small,  some 
with  none  at  all,  some  pleated  and  crested  behind  and  curi- 
ously gathered  and  some  not." 

An  old  satirical  print,  dated  1644,  gives  drawings 
of  men  of  all  the  new  varieties  of  religious  belief 
and  practices  which  "pestered  Christians"  at  the 
beginning  of  the  century.  With  the  exception  of 
the  Adamite,  whose  garb  is  that  of  Adam  in  the 
Garden  of  Eden,  all  ten  wear  doublets.  These  vary 
slightly,  much  less  than  in  Stubbes's  list  of  jerkins. 
One  is  open  up  the  back  with  buttons  and  button- 
loops.  Another  has  the  "four  laps  on  a  side," 
showing  it  is  a  jerkin.  Another  is  opened  on  the 
hips  ;  one  is  slit  at  back  and  hips.  All  save  one 
from  neck  to  hem  are  buttoned  in  front  with  a  sin- 
gle row  of  buttons,  with  no  lapells,  collar,  or  cuffs, 
and  no  "  flaps,"  no  ornaments  or  trimming.  A 
linen  shirt-cuff  and  a  plain  band  finish  sleeves  and 
neck  of  all  save  the  Arminian,  who  wears  a  small 
ruff.  Not  one  of  these  doublets  is  a  graceful  or  an 
elegant  garment.  All  are  shapeless  and  over-plain ; 
and  have  none  of  the  French  smartness  that  came 
from  the  spreading  coat-skirts  of  men's   later  wear. 

The  welts  or  wings  named  in   the  early  sumptu- 


1 68  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

ary  laws  were  the  pieces  of  cloth  set  at  the  shoulder 
over  the  arm-hole  where  body  and  sleeves  meet. 
The  welt  was  at  first  a  sort  of  epaulet,  but  grew 
longer  and  often  set  out,  thus  deserving  its  title  of 
wings. 

A  dress  of  the  times  is  thus  described  :  — 

"  His  doublet  was  of  a  strange  cut,  the  collar  of  it  was 
up  so  high  and  sharp  as  it  would  cut  his  throat.  His  wings 
according  to  the  fashion  now  were  as  little  and  diminutive 
as  a  Puritan's  ruff." 

A  note  to  this  says  that  "  wings  were  lateral  pro- 
jections, extending  from  each  shoulder"  —  a  good 
round  sentence  that  by  itself  really  means  nothing. 
Ben  Jonson  calls  them  "  puff-wings." 

There  is  one  positive  rule  in  the  shape  of  doub- 
lets ;  they  were  always  welted  at  the  arm-hole.  Pos- 
sibly the  sleeves  were  sometimes  sewn  in,  but  even 
then  there  was  always  a  cap,  a  welt  or  a  hanging  sleeve 
or  some  edging.  In  the  illustrations  of  the  Rox- 
burghe  Ballads  there  is  not  a  doublet  or  jerkin  on 
man,  woman,  or  child  but  is  thus  welted.  Some 
trimming  around  the  arm-hole  was  a  law.  This 
lasted  until  the  coat  was  wholly  evolved.  This  had 
sleeves,  and  the  shoulder-welt  vanished. 

These  welts  were  often  turreted  or  cut  in  squares. 
You  will  note  this  turreted  shoulder  in  some  form 
on  nearly  all  the  doublets  given  in  the  portraits  dis- 
played in  this  book  —  both  on  men  and  women. 
For  doublets  were  also  worn  by  women.  Stubbes 
says,  "  Though  this  be  a  kind  of  attire  proper  only 
to  a  man,  yet  they  blush  not  to  wear  it."     The  old 


THE  HIGH  BOPJSt.tfh.lKCE  LsMES  DvKE  OF  \oRKE 

borne  Ocftober  =tlie  15.1613 


The  Evolution   of  Coats  and   Waistcoats      169 

print  of  the  infamous  Mrs.  Turner  given  facing  page 
130  shows  her  in  a  doublet. 
Another  author  complains  :  — 

"  If  Men  get  up  French  standing  collars  Women  will 
have  the  French  standing  collar  too  :  if  Dublets  with  little 
thick  skirts,  so  short  none  are  able  to  sit  upon  them,  women's 
foreparts  are  thick  skirted  too." 

Children  also  had  doublets  and  this  same  shoulder- 
cap  at  the  arm-hole ;  their  little  doublets  were  made 
precisely  like  those  of  their  parents.  Look  at  the 
childish  portrait  of  Lady  Arabella  Stuart,  the  por- 
trait with  the  doll.  Her  fat  little  figure  is  squeezed 
in  a  doublet  which  has  turreted  welts  like  those  worn 
by  Anne  Boleyn  and  by  Pocahontas  (facing  page 
122).  Often  a  button  was  set  between  each  square 
of  the  welt,  and  the  sleeve  loops  or  points  could  be 
tied  to  these  buttons  and  thus  hold  up  the  detached 
undersleeves.  The  portrait  of  Sir  Richard  Salton- 
stall  vaguely  shows  these  buttons.  Nearly  all  these 
garments — jerkins,  jackets,  doublets,  buff-coats,  pal- 
tocks,  were  sleeveless,  especially  when  worn  as  the 
uppermost  or  outer  garment.  Holinshed  tells  of 
"  doublets  full  of  jagges  and  cuts  and  sleeves  of 
sundry  colours."  These  welts  were  "  embroidered, 
indented,  waved,  furred,  chisel-punched,  dagged," 
as  well  as  turreted.  On  one  sleeve  the  turreted 
welt  varied,  the  middle  square  or  turret  was  long, 
the  others  each  two  inches  shorter.  Thus  the 
sleeve-welt  had  a  "  crow-step "  shape.  A  charm- 
ing doublet  sleeve  of  Elizabeth's  day  displayed  a 
short  hanging  sleeve  that  was   scarce  more  than  a 


170  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

hanging  welt.  This  was  edged  around  with  crystal 
balls  or  buttons.  Other  welts  were  scalloped,  with 
an  eyelet-hole  in  each  scallop,  like  the  edge  of  old 
ladies'  flannel  petticoats.  Othersome  welts  were  a 
round  stuffed  roll.  This  roll  also  had  its  day  around 
the  petticoat  edge,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  petticoat 
of  the  child  Henry  Gibbes.  This  roll  still  appears 
on  Japanese  kimonos. 

We  are  constantly  finding  complaints  of  the  un- 
suitably ambitious  attire  of  laboring  folk  in  such 
sentences  as  this  :  — 

"  The  plowman,  in  times  past  content  in  russet,  must 
now-a-daies  have  his  doublett  of  the  fashion  with  wide  cuts; 
his  fine  garters  of  Granada,  to  meet  his  Sis  on  Sunday.  The 
fair  one  in  russet  frock  and  mockaldo  sleeves  now  sells  a 
cow  against  Easter  to  buy  her  silken  gear." 

Velvet  jerkins  and  damask  doublets  were  for  men 
of  dignity  and  estate.  Governor  Winthrop  had  two 
tufted  velvet  jerkins. 

Jerkins  and  doublets  varied  much  in  shape  and 
detail :  — 

"  These  doublets  were  this  day  short-waisted,  anon,  long- 
bellied  ;  by-and-by-after  great-buttoned,  straight-after  plain- 
laced,  or  else  your  buttons  as  strange  for  smallness  as  were 
before  for  bigness." 

In  Charles  II's  time  at  the  May-pole  dances  still 
appear  the  old,  welted  doublets.  Jack  may  have 
worn  Cicily's  doublet,  and  Peg  may  have  borrowed 
Will's  for  all  the  difference  that  can  be  seen.  The 
man's   doublet    did    not    ever    have   long,    hanging 


The  Evolution  of  Coats  and  Waistcoats      17: 


An  Embroidered  Jerkin. 

sleeves,  however,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  while 
women  wore  such  sleeves. 

Sometimes  the  sleeves  were  very  large,  as  in  the 
Bowdoin  portrait  (facing  page  198).  The  great  puffs 
were  held  out  by  whalebones  and  rolls  of  cotton,  and 
"  tiring-sleeves  "  of  wires,  a  fashion  which  has  ob- 
tained for  women  at  least  seven  times  in  the  history 
of  English  costume.  Gosson  describes  the  vast 
sleeves  of  English  doublets  thus  ;  — ■ 


172  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

"  This  Cloth  of  Price  all  cut  in  ragges, 

These  monstrous  bones  that  compass  arms, 
These  buttons,  pinches,  fringes,  jagges, 

With  them  he  (the  Devil)  weavcth  woeful  harms. 


We  have  seen  how  bitterly  the  slashing  of  good 
cloth  exercised  good  men.  The  "cutting  in  rags" 
was  slashing. 

A  favorite  pattern  of  slashing  is  in  small,  narrow 
slits  as  shown  in  the  portrait  on  page  225  of  James 
Douglas.  These  jerkins  are  of  leather,  and  the  slashes 
are  of  course  ornamental,  and  are  also  for  health  and 
comfort,  as  those  know  who  wear  chamois  jackets 
with  perforated  holes  throughout  them,  or  slashes  if 
we  choose  to  call  them  so.  They  permit  a  circula- 
tion of  the  skin  and  a  natural  condition.  These  jer- 
kins are  slashed  in  curious  little  cuts,  "  carved  of 
very  good  intail,"  as  was  said  of  King  Henry's  jer- 
kin, which  means,  in  modern  English,  cut  in  very 
good  designs.  And  I  presume,  being  of  buff  leather, 
the  slashes  were  simply  cut,  not  overcast  or  em- 
broidered as  were  some  wool   stuffs. 

The  guard  was  literally  a  guard  to  the  seam,  a 
strip  of  galloon,  silk,  lace,  velvet,  put  on  over  the 
seam  to  protect  and  strengthen  it. 

The  large  openings  or  slashes  were  called  panes. 
Fynes  Mayson  says,  "  Lord  Mountjoy  wore  jerkins 
and  round  hose  with  laced  panes  of  russet  cloth." 
The  Swiss  dress  was  painted  by  Coryat  as  doublet 
and  hose  of  panes  intermingled  of  red  and  yellow, 
trimmed  with  long  puffs  of  blue  and  yellow  rising  up 
between  the  panes.     It  was  necessarily  a  costly  dress. 


The  Evolution  of  Coats  and  Waistcoats      173 


Of  course  this  is  the  same  word  with  the  same  mean- 
ing as  when  used  in  the  term  a  "  pane  of  glass." 

The  word  "  pinches  "  refers  to  an  elaborate  pleat- 
ing which  was  worn  for  years  ;  it  lingered  in  America 
till  1750,  and  we  have 
revived  it  in  what  we 
term  "  accordion  pleat- 
ing." The  seventeenth- 
century  pinching  was 
usually  applied  to  lawn 
or  some  washable  stuff; 
and  there  must  have 
been  a  pinching,  a  gof- 
fering machine  by  which 
the  pinching  was  done 
to  the  washed  garment 
by  means  of  a  heated 
iron. 

Pinched  sleeves, 
pinched  partlets, 
pinched  shirts,  pinched 
wimples,  pinched  ruffs, 
are  often  referred  to,  all  washable  garments.  The  good 
wife  of  Bath  wore  a  wimple  which  was  "  y-pinched 
full  seemly."  Henry  VIII  wore  a  pinched  habit- 
shirt  of  finest  lawn,  and  his  fine,  healthy  skin  glowed 
pink  through  the  folds  of  the  lawn  after  his  hearty 
exercise  at  tennis  and  all  kinds  of  athletic  sports,  for 
which  he  had  thrown  off  his  doublet.  We  are  taught 
to  deem  him  "a  spot  of  grease  and  blood  on  Eng- 
land's page."  There  was  more  muscle  than  fat  in 
him  ;  he  could  not  be  restrained  from  constant,  vio- 


John  Lilburne. 


174  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

lent,  dangerous  exercise ;  this  was  one  of  the  causes 
of  the  admiration  of  his  subjects. 

The  pinched  partlet  made  a  fine  undergarment  for 
the  slashed  doublet. 

So  full,  so  close,  were  these  "  pinchings,"  that  one 
author  complained  that  men  wearing  them  could  not 
draw  their  bowstrings  well.  It  was  said  that  the 
"  pinched  partlet  and  puffed  sleeves  "  of  a  courtier 
would  easily  make  a  lad  a  doublet  and  cloak. 

In  my  chapter  on  Children's  Dress  I  tell  of  the 
pinched  shirt  worn  by  Governor  Bradford  when  an 
infant,  and  give  an  illustration  of  it. 

Aglets  or  tags  were  a  pretty  fashion  revived  for 
women's  wear  three  years  ago.  Under  Stuart  reign, 
these  aglets  were  of  gold  or  silver,  and  set  with 
precious  stones  such  as  pear-shaped  pearls.  For 
ordinary  wear  they  were  of  metal,  silk,  or  leather. 
They  secured  from  untwisting  or  ravelling  the  points 
which  were  worn  for  over  a  century  ;  these  were  ties 
or  laces  of  ribbon,  or  woollen  yarn  or  leather,  deco- 
rated with  tags  or  aglets  at  one  end.  Points  were 
often  home-woven,  and  were  deemed  a  pretty  gift  to 
a  friend.  They  were  employed  instead  of  buttons 
in  securing  clothes,  and  were  used  by  the  earliest 
settlers,  chiefly,  I  think,  as  ornaments  at  the  knee 
or  for  holding  up  the  stockings  in  the  place  of 
garters.  They  were  regarded  as  but  foolish  vani- 
ties, and  were  one  of  the  articles  of  finery  tabooed  in 
early  sumptuary  laws.  In  1651  the  general  court 
of  Massachusetts  expressed  its  "  utter  detestation 
and  dislike  that  men  of  meane  condition,  education 
and  calling  should  take  upon    them  the   garbe  of 


The  Evolution  of  Coats  and  Waistcoats     175 

gentlemen  by  the  wearinge  of  poynts  at  the  knees." 
Fashion  was  more  powerful  than  law ;  the  richly 
trimmed,  sashlike  garters  quickly  displaced  the 
modest  points. 

The  Earl  of  Southampton,  friend  of  Shakespere 
and  of  Virginia,  as  pictured  on  a  later  page,  wears 
a  doublet  with  agletted  points  around  his  belt, 
by  which  breeches  and  doublet  are  tied  together. 
This  is  a  striking  portrait.  The  face  is  very  noble. 
A  similar  belt  was  the  favorite  wear  of  Charles  I. 

Martin  Frobisher,  the  hero  of  the  Armada,  wears 
a  jerkin  fastened  down  the  front  with  buttons  and 
aigletted  points.  (See  page  164.)  I  suppose,  when 
the  fronts  of  the  jerkin  were  thoroughly  joined,  each 
button  had  a  point  twisted  or  tied  around  it.  Fro- 
bisher's  lawn  ruff  is  a  modest  and  becoming  one. 
This  portrait  in  the  original  is  full  length.  The  re- 
mainder of  the  costume  is  very  plain;  it  has  no 
garters,  no  knee-points,  no  ribbons,  no  shoe-roses. 
The  foot-covering  is  Turkish  slippers  precisely  like 
the  Oriental  slippers  which  are  imported  to-day. 

The  Earl  of  Morton  (page  225)  wore  a  jerkin  of 
buff  leather  curiously  pinked  and  slashed.  Fulke 
Greville's  doublet  (page  223)  has  a  singular  puff 
around  the  waist,  like  a  farthingale.  Facing  page 
166  is  shown  a  doublet  of  the  commonest  form; 
this  is  worn  by  Edward  Courtenay,  Earl  of  Devon- 
shire. The  portrait  is  painted  by  Sir  Antonio  More 
—  the  portrait  of  one  artist  by  another,  and  a  very 
fine  one,  too. 

Another  garment,  which  is  constantly  named  in 
lists  of  clothing,  was  the  cassock.     Steevens  says  a 


176  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

cassock  "  signifies  a  horseman's  loose  coat,  and  is 
used  in  that  sense  by  the  writers  of  the  age  of 
Shakespere."  It  was  apparently  a  garment  much 
like  a  doublet  or  jerkin,  and  the  names  were  used 
interchangeably.  I  think  the  cassock  was  longer 
than  the  doublet,  and  without  "  laps."  The  straight, 
long  coats  shown  on  the  gentlemen  in  the  picture 
facing  page  188  were  cassocks.  The  name  finally 
became  applied  only  to  the  coat  or  gown  of  the 
clergy.  In  the  will  of  Robert  Saltonstall,  made  in 
1650,  he  names  a  "  Plush  Cassock,"  but  cloth  cas- 
socks were  the  commonest  wear. 

There  were  other  names  for  the  doublet  which  are 
now  difficult  to  place  precisely.  In  the  reign  of 
Henry  VIII  a  law  was  passed  as  to  men's  wear  of 
velvet  in  their  sleeveless  cotes,  jackets,  and  jupes. 
This  word  jupe  and  its  ally  jupon  were  more  fre- 
quently heard  in  women's  lists  ;  but  jump,  a  deriva- 
tive, was  man's  wear.  Randle  Holme  said  :  "  A 
jump  extendeth  to  the  thighs  ;  is  open  and  buttoned 
before,  and  may  have  a  slit  half  way  behind."  It 
might  be  with  or  without  sleeves  —  all  this  being 
likewise  true  of  the  doublet.  From  this  jump  de- 
scended the  modern  jumper  and  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury jumps —  what  Dr.  Johnson  defined  in  one  of 
his  delightsome  struggles  with  the  names  of  women's 
attire,  "Jumps:  a  kind  of  loose  or  limber  stays 
worn  by  sickly  ladies." 

Coats  were  not  furnished  to  the  Massachusetts  or 
Plymouth  planters,  but  those  of  Piscataquay  in  New 
Hampshire  had  "lined  coats,"  which  were  simply 
doublets  like  all  the  rest. 


The  Evolution  of  Coats  and  Waistcoats      177 


Colonel  William  Legge. 


In  1633  we  find  that  Governor  Winthrop  had 
several  dozen  scarlet  coats  sent  from  England  to 
"  the  Bay."      The  consigner  wrote,  "  I   could    not 


178  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

find  any  Bridgwater  cloth  but  Red;  so  all  the  coats 
sent  are  red  lined  with  blew,  and  lace  suitable; 
which  red  is  the  choise  color  of  all."  These  coats 
of  double  thickness  were  evidently  doublets. 

The  word  "  coat "  in  the  earliest  lists  must  often 
refer  to  a  waistcoat.  I  infer  this  from  the  small  cost 
of  the  garments,  the  small  amount  of  stuff  it  took  to 
make  them,  and  because  they  were  worn  with  "  Vper 
coats"  —  upper  coats.  Raccoon-skin  and  deerskin 
coats  were  many;  these  were  likewise  waistcoats, 
and  the  first  lace  coats  were  also  waistcoats.  Robert 
Keayne  of  Boston  had  costly  lace  coats  in  1640, 
which  he  wore  with  doublets  —  these  likewise  were 
waistcoats. 

As  years  go  on,  the  use  of  the  word  becomes  con- 
stant. There  were  "  moose-coats  "  of  mooseskin. 
Josselyn  says  mooseskin  made  excellent  coats  for 
martial  men.  Then  come  papous  coats  and  pap- 
pous  coats.  These  I  inferred  —  since  they  were 
used  in  Indian  trading  —  were  for  pappooses'  wear, 
pappoose  being  the  Indian  word  for  child.  But 
I  had  a  painful  shock  in  finding  in  the  Traders' 
Table  of  Values  that  "  3  Pappous  Skins  equal  1 
Beaver"  —  so  I  must  not  believe  that  pappoose 
here  means  Indian  baby.  Match-coats  were  origi- 
nally of  skins  dressed  with  the  fur  on,  shaped  in  a 
coat  like  the  hunting-shirt.  The  "  DufBeld  Match- 
coat"  was  made  of  duffels,  a  woollen  stuff,  in  the 
same  shape.  Duffels  was  called  match-cloth.  The 
word  "  coat "  here  is  not  really  an  English  word ;  it 
is  matchigode,  the  Chippewa  Indian  name  for  this 
garment. 


The  Evolution  of  Coats  and  Waistcoats      179 


We  have  in  old-time  letters  and  accounts  occa- 
sional proof  that  the  coat  of  the  Puritan  fathers 
was  not  at  all  like  the  shapely  coat  of  our  day. 
We  have  also  many  words  to  prove  that  the  coat  was 
adoubletwhich, 


as  old  Stubbes 
said,  could  be 
"pleated,  or 
crested  behind 
and  curiously 
gathered." 

The  tailor  of 
the  Winthrop 
family  was  one 
John  Smith ;  he 
made  garments 
for  them  all, 
father,  mother, 
children,  and 
children's  wives, 
and  husband's 
sisters,  nieces, 
cousins,  and 
aunts.  He  was 
a  good  Puritan, 
and  seems  to 
have  been  much  esteemed  by  Winthrop.  One  letter 
accompanying  a  coat  runs  :  "  Good  Mr.  Winthrop, 
I  have,  by  Mr.  Downing's  direction  sent  you  a 
coat,  a  sad  foulding  colour  without  lace.  For  the 
fittness  I  am  a  little  vncerteyne,  but  if  it  be  too 
bigg  or  too  little  it  is  esie  to  amend,  vnder  the  arme 


Of  /urn,  nwft    s4a^e  ttiu ■^Picture-     fiam  ^t/yn'tP, 
(Vestw,  and*  Harnvy,  regr*fmt  f&(TTlM       W  s 


i8o  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

to  take  in  or  let  out  the  lyning;  the  outside  may 
be  let  out  in  the  gathering  or  taken  in  also  with- 
out any  prejudice."  This  instruction  would  appear 
to  prove  not  only  that  the  coat  was  a  doublet,  "  curi- 
ously gathered,"  but  that  the  "  flttness "  was  more 
than  "  uncerteyne "  of  the  coats  of  the  Fathers. 
Since  even  such  wildly  broad  directions  could  not 
"  prejudice  "  the  coat,  we  may  assume  that  Governor 
Winthrop  was  more  easily  suited  as  to  the  cut  of 
his  apparel,  than  would  have  been  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh   or  Sir  Philip  Sidney. 

Though  Puritan  influence  on  dress  simplified 
much  of  the  flippery  and  finery  of  the  days  of 
Elizabeth  and  James,  and  the  refining  elegance  of 
Van  Dyck  gave  additional  simplicity  as  well  as 
beauty  to  women's  attire,  which  it  retained  for  many 
years,  still  there  lingered  throughout  the  seven- 
teenth century,  ready  to  spring  into  fresh  life  at  a 
breath  of  encouragement,  many  grotesqueries  of 
fashion  in  men's  dress  which,  in  the  picturesque 
sneer  of  the  day,  were  deemed  meet  only  for  "  a 
changeable-silk-gallant."  At  the  restoration  of 
the  crown,  courtiers  seemed  to  love  to  flaunt  frivol- 
ity in  the  faces  of  the  Puritans. 

One  of  these  trumperies  came  through  the  ex- 
cessive use  of  ribbons,  a  use  which  gave  much 
charm  to  women's  dress,  but  which  ever  gave  to 
men's  garments  a  finicky  look.  Beribboned  doub- 
lets came  in  the  butterfly  period,  between  worm 
and  chrysalis,  between  doublet  and  coat;  be- 
ribboned breeches  were  eagerly  adopted. 

On  page   179  is  the  copy  of  an  old  print,  which 


The  Evolution  of  Coats  and  Waistcoats      1 8 1 


shows  the  dress  of  an  estimable  and  sensible  gentle- 
man, Sir  Thomas  Orchard,  with  ribbon-edged  gar- 
ments and  much  galloon  or  laces.  It  is  far  too 
much  trimmed  to  be  rich  or  elegant.  See  also 
The  English  Antick 
on  this  page,  from 
a  rare  broadside. 
His  tall  hat  is  be- 
ribboned  and  be- 
feathered";  his  face 
is  patched,  ribbons 
knot  his  love-locks, 
his  breeches  are 
edged  with  agletted 
ribbons,  and  "on 
either  side  are  two 
great  bunches  of 
ribbons  of  several 
colors."  Similar 
knots  are  at  wrists 
andbelt.  His  boots 
are  fringed  with 
lace,  and  so  wide 
that  he  "  straddled 
as  he  went  along 
singing." 

Ribboned  sleeves  like  those  of  Colonel  Legge, 
page  177,  were  a  pretty  fashion,  but  more  suited  to 
women's  wear  than  to  men's. 

George    Fox,   the    founder    of  Quakerism,    tells 


The  English  Antick. 


us    what    he 
satirically  :  — 


thought    of    such    attire.      He    wrote 


1 82  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

"  If  one  have  store  of  ribands  hanging  about  his  waist 
or  his  knees  and  in  his  hat  •,  of  divers  colours  red,  white 
black  or  yellow,  ()  !  then  he  is  a  brave  man.  He  hath 
ribands  on  his  back,  belly  and  knees,  and  his  hair  powdered, 
this  is  the  array  of  the  world.  Are  not  these  that  have  got 
ribands  hanging  about  their  arms,  hands,  back,  waist,  knees, 
hats,  like  fiddlers'  boys?  And  further  if  one  get  a  pair  of 
breeches  like  a  coat  and  hang  them  about  with  points,  and 
tied  up  almost  to  the  middle,  a  pair  of  double  cuffs  on  his 
hands,  and  a  feather  in  his  cap,  here  is  a  gentleman  !  " 

These  beribboned  garments  were  a  French  mode. 
The  breeches  were  the  "rhingraves"  of  the  French 
court,  which  were  breeches  made  wholly  of  loops 
of  ribbons  —  like  two  ribboned  petticoats.  They 
caught  the  eye  of  seafaring  men;  we  know  that  Jack 
ashore  loves  finery.  We  are  told  of  sea-captains 
wearing  beribboned  breeches  as  they  came  into  quiet 
little  American  ports,  and  of  one  English  gallant 
landing  from  a  ship  in  sober  Boston,  wearing 
breeches  made  wholly  from  waist  to  knee  of  over- 
lapping loops  of  gay  varicolored  ribbon.  It  is  re- 
corded that  "the  boys  did  wonder  and  call  out 
thereat,"  and  they  "  were  chided  therefor."  It  is 
easy  to  picture  the  scene :  the  staring  boys,  born  in 
Boston,  of  Puritan  parents,  of  dignified  dress,  and 
more  familiar  with  fringes  on  the  garments  of  sav- 
age Indians  than  on  the  breeches  of  English  gentle- 
men ;  we  can  see  the  soberly  reproving  minister  or 
schoolmaster  looking  with  equal  disapproval  on 
the  foppish  visitor  and  the  mannerless  boys ;  and 
the  gayly  dressed  ship's  captain,  armed  with  self- 
satisfaction  and   masculine  vanity,  swaggering  along 


The  Evolution  of  Coats  and  Waistcoats     183 

the  narrow  streets  of  the  little  town.  It  mattered 
not  what  he  wore  or  what  he  did,  a  seafaring  man 
was  welcome.  I  wonder  what  the  governor  thought 
of  those  beribboned  breeches  !  Perhaps  he  ordered 
a  pair  from  London  for  himself,  —  of  sad-colored 
ribbons,  —  offering  the  color  as  a  compromise  for 
the  over-gayety  of  the  ribbons.  Randle  Holme 
gave  in  1658  three  descriptions  of  the  first  petticoat- 
breeches,  with  drawings  of  each.  One  had  the  lining 
lower  than  the  breeches,  and  tied  in  about  the  knees  ; 
ribbons  extended  halfway  up  the  breeches,  and  rib- 
bons hung  out  from  the  doublet  all  about  the  waist- 
band. The  second  had  a  single  row  of  pointed 
ribbons  hanging  all  around  the  lower  edge  of  the 
breeches ;  these  were  worn  with  stirrup-hose  two 
yards  wide  at  the  top,  tied  by  points  and  eyelet-holes 
to  the  breeches.  The  third  had  stirrup-hose  tied  to 
the  breeches,  and  another  pair  of  hose  over  them 
turned  down  at  the  calf  of  the  leg,  and  the  ribbons 
edged  the  stirrup-hose.  His  drawings  of  them  are 
foolish  things  —  not  even  pretty.  He  says  ribbons 
were  worn  first  at  the  knees,  then  at  the  waist  at  the 
doublet  edge,  then  around  the  neck,  then  on  the  wrists 
and  sleeves.  These  knee-ribbons  formed  what  Dry- 
den  called  in  1674  "a  dangling  knee-fringe."  It  is 
difficult  for  me  to  think  of  Dryden  living  at  that 
period  of  history.  He  seems  to  me  infinitely  modern 
in  comparison  with  it.  Evelyn  describes  the  wearer 
of  such  a  suit  as  "a  fine  silken  thing";  and  tells 
that  the  ribbons  were  of  "  well-chosen  colours  of  red, 
orange,  and  blew,  of  well-gummed  satin,  which 
augured  a  happy  fancy." 


184  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

In  1672  ;i  suit  of  men's  clothes  was  made  for  the 
beautiful  Duchess  of  Portsmouth  to  wear  to  a  mas- 
querade;  this  was  with  "  Rhingrave  breeches  and 
cannons."  The  suit  was  of  dove-colored  silk  brocade 
trimmed  with  scarlet  and  silver  lace  and  ribbons. 

The  ten  yards  of  brocade  for  this  beautiful  suit  cost 
^14.  The  Rhingrave  breeches  were  trimmed  with 
thirty-six  yards  of  figured  scarlet  ribbon  and  thirty- 
six  yards  of  plain  satin  ribbon  and  thirty-six  of  scar- 
let taffeta  ribbon  ;  this  made  one  hundred  and  eight 
yards  of  ribbon  —  a  great  amount  —  an  unusable 
amount.  I  fear  the  tailor  was  not  honest.  There 
were  also  as  trimmings  twenty-two  yards  of  scarlet 
and  silver  vellum  lace  for  guards  ;  six  dozen  scarlet 
and  silver  vellum  buttons,  smaller  breast  buttons, 
narrow  laces  for  the  waistcoat,  and  silver  twist  for 
buttonholes.  The  suit  was  lined  with  lutestring. 
There  was  a  black  beaver  hat  with  scarlet  and  silver 
edging,  and  lace  embroidered  scarlet  stockings,  a  rich 
belt  and  lace  garters,  and  point  lace  ruffles  for  the 
neck,  sleeves,  and  knees.  This  suit  had  an  interlin- 
ing of  scarlet  camlet;  and  lutestring  drawers  seamed 
with  scarlet  and  silver  lace.  The  total  bill  of  ^59 
would  be  represented  to-day  by  $1400,  —  a  goodly 
sum,  —  but  it  was  a  goodly  suit.  There  is  a  portrait 
of  the  Duchess  of  Richmond  in  a  similar  suit,  now  at 
Buckingham  Palace.  Portraits  of  the  Duke  of  Bed- 
ford, and  of  George  I,  painted  by  Kneller,  are  almost 
equally  beribboned.  The  one  of  the  king  is  given 
facing  this  page  to  show  his  ribbons  and  also  the  ex- 
traordinary shoes,  which  were  fashionable  at  this  date. 

"  Indians  gowns,"  or  banyans,  were  for  a  century 


George  I. 


The  Evolution  of  Coats  and  Waistcoats      185 

worn  in  England  and  America,  and  are  of  enough 
importance  to  receive  a  separate  chapter  in  this  book. 
The  graceful  folds  allured  all  men  and  all  portrait 
painters,  just  as  the  fashionable  new  china  allured 
all  women.  The  banyan  was  not  the  only  Oriental 
garment  which  had  become  of  interest  to  English- 
men. John  Evelyn  described  in  his  Tyrannus  or  the 
Mode  the  "comeliness  and  usefulnesse  "  of  all  Per- 
sian clothing ;  and  he  noted  with  justifiable  gratifi- 
cation that  the  new  attire  which  had  recently  been 
adopted  by  King  Charles  II  was  "a  comely  dress 
after  ye  Persian  mode."  He  says  modestly,  "  I  do 
not  impute  to  this  my  discourse  the  change  which 
soone  happen'd ;  but  it  was  an  identity  I  could  not 
but  take  notice  of." 

Rugge  in  his  Diurnal  describes  the  novel  dress 
which  was  assumed  by  King  Charles  and  the  whole 
court,  due  notice  of  a  subject  of  so  much  importance 
having  been  given  to  the  council  the  previous  month  ; 
and  notice  of  the  king's  determination  "  never  to 
change  it,"  which  he  kept  like  many  another  of  his 
promises  and  resolutions. 

"  It  is  a  close  coat  of  cloth  pinkt  with  a  white  taffety 
under  the  cutts.  This  in  length  reached  the  calf  of  the 
leg;  and  upon  that  a  sercoat  cutt  at  the  breast,  which  hung 
loose  and  shorter  than  the  vest  six  inches.  The  breeches 
the  Spanish  cutt;  and  buskins  some  of  cloth,  some  of 
leather  but  of  the  same  colour  as  the  vest  or  garment ;  of 
never  the  like  garment  since  William  the  Conqueror." 

Pepys  we  have  seen  further  explained  that  it  was 
all  black  and  white,  the  black  cassock  being  close  to 


1 86  Two   Centuries   of  Costume 


Three  Cassock  Sleeves  and  a  Buff-coat  Sleeve. 

the  body.  "The  legs  ruffled  with  black  ribands  like 
a  pigeon's  leg,  and  I  wish  the  King  mav  keep  it 
for  it  is  a  fine  and  handsome  garment."  The  news 
which  came  to  the  English  court  a  month  later  that 
the  king  of  France  had  put  all  his  footmen  and  ser- 
vants in  this  same  dress  as  a  livery  made  Pepys 
"mightie  merry,  it  being  an  ingenious  kind  of 
affront,  and  yet  makes  me  angry,"  which  is  as  curi- 
ous a  frame  of  mind  as  even  curious  Pepys  could 
record.  Planche  doubts  this  act  of  the  king  of 
France  ;  but  in  The  Character  of  a  Trimmer  the  story 
is  told  in  extenso  —  that  the  "vests  were  put  on  at 
first  by  the  King  to  make  Englishmen  look  unlike 
Frenchmen  ;  but  at  the  first  laughing  at  it  all  ran 
back  to  the  dress  of  French  gentlemen."  The 
king  had  already  taken  out  the  white  linings  as 
"  'tis  like  a  magpie  ;  "  and  was  glad  to  quit  it  I  do 
not  doubt.  Dr.  Holmes  —  and  the  rest  of  us  — 
have  looked  askance  at  the  word  "  vest"  as  allied  in 
usage  to   that   unutterable  contraction,  pants.      But 


The  Evolution  of  Coats  and  Waistcoats      187 

here  we  find  that  vest  is  a  more  classic  name  than 
waistcoat  for  this  dull  garment  —  a  garment  with  too 
little  form  or  significance  to  be  elegant  or  interesting 
or  attractive. 

Though    this    dress    was    adopted    by   the    whole 
court,  and  though  it  was  an  age  of  portrait  paint- 


K  Jli 

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1   Jjp\  i^-.'i*'-'3Hfc 

^^^^■^  T2 

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ijWjgB^lg^ia 

IP57      ('; fffi$5S$Bk 

HI**r"^iM 

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UK    'ftS.  fflHn 

Henry  Bennet,  Earl  of  Arlington. 

ing,  —  and  surely  no  more  delicate  flattery*  to  the 
king's  taste  could  be  given  than  to  have  one's  por- 
trait painted  in  the  king's  chosen  vestments,  —  yet 
but  one  portrait  remains  which  is  stated  to  display 
this  dress.  This  is  the  portrait  of  Henry  Bennet, 
Earl  of  Arlington  —  it  is  shown  on  this  page.     This 


1 88  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

was  painted  by  the  king's  own  painter,  Sir  Peter 
Lely.  I  must  say  that  1  cannot  find  much  resem- 
blance to  Pepys's  or  Rugge's  description,  unless  the 
word  "  pinked  "  means  cut  out  in  an  all-over  pattern 
like  Italian  cut-work  ;  then  this  inner  vest  might  be 
of"  cloth  pinkt  with  a  white  taffeta  under  the  coat." 
The  surcoat  is  of  black  lined  with  white.  Of  course 
the  sash  is  present,  but  not  in  any  way  distinctive. 
It  was  a  characteristic  act  in  the  Karl  to  be  painted 
in  this  dress,  for  he  was  a  courtier  of  courtiers, 
perhaps  the  most  rigid  follower  of  court  rules  in 
England.  He  was  "  by  nature  of  a  pleasant  and 
agreeable  humour,"  but  after  a  diplomatic  journey 
on  the  continent  he  assumed  an  absurd  formality  of 
manner  which  was  much  ridiculed  by  his  contempo- 
raries. His  letters  show  him  to  be  exceeding  nice 
in  his  phraseology ;  and  he  prided  himself  upon 
being  the  best-bred  man  in  court.  He  was  a  trim- 
mer, "the  chief  trickster  of  the  court,"  a  member  of 
the  Cabal,  the  first  a  in  the  word  ;  and  he  was  heartily 
hated  as  well  as  ridiculed.  When  a  young  man  he 
received  a  cut  on  the  nose  in  a  skirmish  in  Ireland ; 
he  never  let  his  prowess  be  forgotten,  but  ever  after 
wore  a  black  patch  "over  the  scar  —  it  maybe  seen 
in  his  portrait.  When  his  fellow  courtiers  wished  to 
gibe  at  him,  they  stuck  black  patches  on  their  noses 
and  with  long  white  staves  strutted  around  the  court 
in  imitation  of  his  pompous  manner.  He  is  a  hand- 
some fellow,  but  too  fat  —  which  was  not  a  curse 
of  his  day  as  of  the  present. 

Of  course  the  king  changed  his  dress  many  times 
after  this  solemn  assumption  of  a  lifelong  garment. 


Figures  from  Funeral  Procession  of  the  Duke  of  Albemarle,   1670. 


The   Evolution  of  Coats  and  Waistcoats      189 

It  was  a  restless,  uncertain,  trying  time  in  men's 
dress.  They  had  lost  the  doublet,  and  had  not 
found  the  skirted  coat,  and  stood  like  the  English- 
man of  Andrew  Borde  —  ready  to  take  a  covering 
from  any  nation  of  the  earth.  I  wonder  the  coat 
ever  survived  —  that  it  did  is  proof  of  an  inherent 
worth.  Knowing  the  nature  of  mankind  and  the 
modes,  the  surprise  really  is  that  the  descendants  of 
Charles  and  all  English  folk  are  not  now  wearing 
shawls  or  peplums  or  anything  save  a  coat  and 
waistcoat. 

Some  of  the  sturdy  rich  members  of  the  governors' 
cabinets  and  the  assemblies  and  some  of  our  Ameri- 
can officers  who  had  been  in  his  Majesty's  army,  or 
had  served  a  term  in  the  provincial  militia,  and  had 
had  a  hot  skirmish  or  two  with  marauding  Indians 
on  the  Connecticut  River  frontier,  and  some  very 
worthy  American  gentlemen  who  were  not  widely 
renowned  either  in  military  or  diplomatic  circles 
and  had  never  worn  armor  save  in  the  artist's  studio, 
—  these  were  all  painted  by  Sir  Godfrey  Kneller  and 
by  Sir  Peter  Lely,  and  by  lesser  lights  in  art,  dressed 
in  a  steel  corselet  of  the  artist,  and  wearing  their  own 
good  Flanders  necktie  and  their  own  full  well-buckled 
wig.  There  were  some  brave  soldiers,  too,  who  were 
thus  painted,  but  there  were  far  more  in  armor  than 
had  ever  smelt  smoke  of  powder.  It  was  a  good 
comfortable  fashion  for  the  busy  artist.  It  must 
have  been  much  easier  when  you  had  painted  a  cer- 
tain corselet  a  hundred  times  to  paint  it  again  than 
to  have  to  paint  all  kinds  of  new  colors  and  stuffs. 
And  the  portrait  in  armor  was  almost  always  kit- 


190  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

cat,  and  that  disposed  of  the  legs,  ever  a  nuisance 
in  portrait-painting. 

While  the  virago-sleeves  were  growing  more  and 
more  ornamental,  and  engageants  were  being  more 
and  more  worn  by  women,  men's  sleeves  assumed  a 
most  interesting  form.  The  long  coat,  or  cassock, 
had  sleeves  which  were  cut  off  at  the  elbow  with 
great  cuffs  and  were  worn  over  enormous  ruffled 
undersleeves  ;  and  they  were  even  cut  midway  be- 
tween shoulder  and  elbow,  were  slashed  and  pointed 
and  beribboned  to  a  wonderful  degree.  This  lasted 
but  a  few  years,  the  years  when  the  cassock  was  shap- 
ing itself  definitely  into  a  skirted  coat.  Perhaps  the 
height  of  ornamentation  in  sleeves  was  in  the  closing 
years  of  the  reign  of  Charles  II,  though  fancy  sleeves 
lingered  till  the  time  of  George  I. 

In  an  account  of  the  funeral  of  George  Monck,  the 
Duke  of  Albemarle,  in  the  year  1670,  the  dress  is 
very  carefully  drawn  of  those  who  walked  in  the  pro- 
cession. (Some  of  them  are  given  facing  page  188.) 
It  may  be  noted,  first,  that  all  the  hats  are  lower 
crowned  and  straight  crowned,  not  like  a  cone  or  a 
truncated  cone,  as  crowns  had  been.  The  Poor  Men 
are  in  robes  with  beards  and  flowing  natural  hair ; 
they  wear  square  bands,  and  carry  staves.  The 
Clergymen  wear  trailing  surplices  ;  but  these  are  over 
a  sort  of  cassock  and  breeches,  and  they  all  have 
high-heeled  shoes  with  great  roses.  They  also  have 
their  own  hair.  The  Doctors  of  Physic  are  dressed 
like  the  Gentlemen  and  Earls,  save  that  they  wear  a 
rich  robe  with  bands  at  the  upper  arm,  over  the  other 
fine  dress.     The  gentlemen  wear  a  cassock,  or  coat, 


Earl  of  Southampton. 


The  Evolution  of  Coats  and  Waistcoats      191 

which  reaches  to  the  knee;  the  pockets  are  nearly 
as  low  as  the  knee.  These  cassocks  have  lapels 
from  neck  to  hem,  with  a  long  row  of  gold  buttons 
which  are  wholly  for  ornament,  the  cassock  never 
being  fastened  with  the  buttons.  The  sleeves  reach 
only  to  the  elbow  and  turn  back  in  a  spreading  cuff; 
and  from  the  elbow  hang  heavy  ruffles  and  under- 
sleeves,  some  of  rich  lace,  others  of  embroidery. 
The  gentlemen  and  earls  wear  great  wigs. 

This  coat  was  called  a  surcoat  or  tunic.  The 
under-coat,  or  waistcoat,  was  also  called  a  vest,  as 
by  Charles  the  king. 

From  this  vest,  or  surcoat,  was  developed  a  coat, 
with  skirts,  such  as  had  become,  ere  the  year  1700, 
the  universal  wear  of  English  and  American  men. 
Its  first  form  was  adopted  about  at  the  close  of  the 
reign  of  Charles  II.  By  1688  Quaker  teachers 
warned  their  younger  sort  against  "  cross-pockets  on 
men's  coats,  side  slopes,  over-full  skirted  coats. 

In  an  old  play  a  man  threatens  a  country  lad, 
"  I'll  make  your  buttons  fly."  The  lad  replies, 
"  All  my  buttons  is  loops."  Some  garments,  espe- 
cially leather  ones,  like  doublets,  which  were  cum- 
bersome to  button,  were  secured  by  loops.  For 
instance,  in  spatterdashes,  a  row  of  holes  was  set  on 
one  side,  and  of  loops  on  the  other.  To  fasten 
them,  one  must  begin  at  the  lower  loop,  pass  this 
through  the  first  hole,  then  put  the  second  loop 
through  that  first  loop  and  the  second  hole,  and  so 
on  till  the  last  loop  was  fastened  to  the  breeches  by 
buckle  and  strap  or  large  single  button.  From  these 
loops  were  developed  frogs  and  loops. 


192  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

Major  John  Pyncheon  had,  in  1703,  a  "light 
coulour'd  cape-coat  with  Frogs  on  it."  In  the  New 
England  Weekly  Journal  of  1736  "New  Fashion'd 
Frogs  "  are  named  ;  and  later,  "  Spangled  Scalloped 
&  Brocaded  Frogs." 

Though  these  jerkins  and  mandillions  and  doublets 
which  were  furnished  to  the  Bay  colonists  were  fas- 
tened with  hooks  and  eyes,  buttons  were  worn  also, 
as  old  portraits  and  old  letters  prove.  John  Eliot 
ordered  for  traffic  with  the  Indians,  in  1651,  three 
gross  of  pewter  buttons  ;  and  Robert  Keayne,  of 
Boston,  writing  in  1653,  said  bitterly  that  a  "hay- 
nous  offence  "  of  his  had  been  selling  buttons  at  too 
large  profit  —  that  they  were  gold  buttons  and  he 
had  sold  them  for  two  shillings  ninepence  a  dozen 
in  Boston,  when  they  had  cost  but  two  shillings  a 
dozen  in  London  (which  does  not  seem,  in  the 
light  of  our  modern  profits  on  imported  goods,  a 
very  "  haynous "  offence).  He  also  added  with 
acerbity  that  "  they  were  never  payd  for  by  those 
that  complayned." 

Buttonholes  were  a  matter  of  ornament  more 
than  of  use  ;  in  fact,  they  were  never  used  for  clos- 
ing the  garment  after  coats  came  to  be  worn.  They 
were  carefully  cut  and  "  laid  around  "  in  gay  colors, 
embroidered  with  silver  and  gold  thread,  bound 
with  vellum,  with  kid,  with  velvet.  We  find  in  old- 
time  letters  directions  about  modish  buttonholes, 
and  drawings  even,  in  order  that  the  shape  may  be 
exactly  as  wished.  An  E-nglish  contemporary  of 
John  Winthrop's  has  tasselled  buttonholes  on  his 
doublet. 


The  Evolution  of  Coats  and  Waistcoats     193 

Various  are  the  reasons  given  for  the  placing  of 
the  two  buttons  on  the  back  of  a  man's  coat.  One 
is  that  they  are  a  survival  of  buttons  which  were 
used  on  the  eighteenth-century  riding-coat.  The 
coat-tails  were  thus  buttoned  up  when  the  wearer 
was  on  horseback.  Another  is  that  they  were  used 
for  looping  back  the  skirts  of  the  coats  ;  it  is  said 
that  loops  of  cord  were  placed  at  the  corners  of  the 
said  skirts. 

A  curious  anecdote  about  these  two  buttons  on 
the  back  of  the  coat  is  that  a  tribe  of  North  Ameri- 
can Indians,  deep  believers  in  the  value  of  symbol- 
ism, refused  to  heed  a  missionary  because  he  could 
not  explain  to  them  the  significance  of  these  two 
buttons. 


VOL.  I  —  O 


CHAPTER   VI 


RUFFS    AND    BANDS 


"  Fashion  has  brought  in  deep  ruffs  and  shallow  ruff's,  thick 
ruffs  and  thin  ruffs,  double  ruffs  and  no  ruffs.  When  the 
fudge  of  the  quick  and  the  dead  shall  appear  he  will  not  know 
those  who  have  so  defaced  the  fashion  he  hath  created." 

—  Sermon,  John  King,  Bishop  of  London,  1590. 


"  Now  up  aloft  I  mount  unto  the  Ruffe 
Which  into  foolish  Mortals  pride  doth  puffe ; 
Yet  Ruffe's  antiquitie  is  here  but  small  — 
Within  these  eighty  Tears  not  one  at  all 
For  the  8th  Henry,  as  I  understand 
Was  the  first  King  that  ever  wore  a  Band 
And  but  a  Falling  Band,  plaine  with  a  Hem 
All  other  people  know  no  use  of  them." 

■  The  Prayse  of  Clean  Linnen,"  John  Taylor,  the  "Water  Poet,"  1640. 


A  Bowdoin  Portrait. 


CHAPTER   VI 

RUFFS    AND    BANDS 

E  have  in  this  poem  of  the  old  "  Water 
Poet"  a  definite  statement  of  the  date 
of  the  introduction  of  ruffs  for  English 
wear.  We  are  afforded  in  the  por- 
traiture given  in  this  book  ample  proof 
of  the  fall  of  the  ruff. 

Like  many  of  the  most  striking  fashions  of  olden 
times,  the  ruff  was  Spanish.  French  gentlemen  had 
worn  frills  or  ruffs  about  1540;  soon  after,  these 
appeared  in  England ;  by  the  date  of  Elizabeth's 
accession  the  ruff  had  become  the  most  imposing 
article  of  English  men's  and  women's  dress.  It  was 
worn  exclusively  by  fine  folk ;  for  it  was  too  frail 
and  too  costly  for  the  common  wear  of  the  common 
people,  though  lawn  ruffs  were  seen  on  many  of 
low  degree.  A  ruff  such  as  was  worn  by  a  courtier 
contained  eighteen  or  nineteen  yards  of  fine  linen 
lawn.  A  quarter  of  a  yard  wide  was  the  fashionable 
width  in  England.  Ruffs  were  carefully  pleated  in 
triple  box-plaits  as  shown  in  the  Bowdoin  portrait 
facing  page  198.  Then  they  were  bound  with  a 
firm  neck-binding. 

This  carefully  made  ruff  was  starched  with  good 
English    or    Dutch     starch ;     fluted    with   "  setting 
197 


198  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

sticks  "  of  wood  or  bone,  to  hold  each  pleat  up  ; 
then  fixed  with  struts  —  also  of  wood  —  placed  in  a 
manner  to  hold  the  pleats  firmly  apart;  and  finally 
"seared"  or  goffered  with  "poking  sticks  "  of  iron 
or  steel,  which,  duly  heated,  dried  the  stiffening 
starch.  To  "  do  up  "  a  formal  rufT  was  a  wearisome, 
difficult,  and  costly  process.  Women  of  skill  acquired 
considerable  fortunes  as  "gofferers." 

Stubbes  tells  us  further  of  the  rich  decoration  of 
ruffs  with  gold,  silver,  and  silk  lace,  with  needlework, 
with  openwork,  and  with  purled  lace.  This  was  in 
Elizabeth's  day.  John  Winthrop's  ruff"  (on  page 
10)  is  edged  with  lace;  in  general  a  plain  ruff"  was 
worn  by  plain  gentlemen  ;  one  may  be  seen  on 
Martin  Frobisher  (page  164).  Rich  lace  was  for  the 
court.  Their  great  cost,  their  inconvenience,  their 
artificiality,  their  size,  were  sure  to  make  ruffs  a 
"  reason  of  offence  "  to  reformers.  Stubbes  gave 
voice  to  their  complaints  in  these  words  :  — 

"  They  haue  great  and  monstrous  ruffes,  made  either  of 
cambrike,  holland,  lawne,  or  els  of  some  other  the  finest 
cloth  that  can  be  got  for  money,  whereof  some  be  a 
quarter  of  a  yarde  deepe,  yea,  some  more,  very  few  lesse, 
so  that  they  stande  a  full  quarter  of  a  yearde  (and  more) 
from  their  necks  hanging  ouer  their  shoulder  points  in 
steade  of  a  vaile." 

Still  more  violent  does  he  grow  over  starch  :  — 

"  The  one  arch  or  piller  whereby  his  (the  Devil's)  kyng- 
dome  of  great  ruffes  is  vnderpropped,  is  a  certaine  kind  of 
liquid  matter,  whiche  they  call  starch,  wherein  the  deuill 
hath  willed  them  to  washe  and  dive  their  ruffes  well,  whiche, 


Ruffs  and  Bands  199 

beeying  drie,  will  then  stande  stiff  and  inflexible  about  their 
necks. 

"  The  other  piller  is  a  certaine  device  made  of  wiers, 
crested  for  the  purpose ;  whipped  ouer  either  with  gold 
thred,  siluer,  or  silke,  and  this  he  calleth  a  supportasse  or 
vnderpropper ;  this  is  to  bee  applied  round  about  their 
neckes  vnder  the  ruffe,  vpon  the  out  side  of  the  bande,  to 
beare  vp  the  whole  frame  and  bodie  of  the  ruffe,  from 
fallying  and  hangying  doune." 

Starch  was  of  various  colors.  We  read  of  "  blue- 
starch-women,"  and  of  what  must  have  been  espe- 
cially ugly,  "  goose-green  starch."  Yellow  starch 
was  most  worn.  It  was  introduced  from  France  by 
the  notorious  Mrs.  Turner.      (See  facing  page  130.) 

Wither  wrote  thus  of  the  varying  modes  of  dress- 
ing the  neck :  — 

"Some  are  graced  by  their  Tyres 
As  their  Quoyfs,  their  Hats,  their  Wyres, 
One  a  Ruff  cloth  best  become  ; 
Falling  bands  allureth  some  ; 
And  their  favours  oft  we  see 
Changed  as  their  dressings  be." 

The  transformation  of  ruff  to  band  can  be  seen 
in  the  painting  of  King  Charles  I.  The  first  Van 
Dyck  portrait  of  him  shows  him  in  a  moderate  ruff 
turned  over  to  lie  down  like  a  collar ;  the  lace  edge 
formed  itself  by  the  pleats  into  points  which  devel- 
oped into  the  lace  points  characteristic  of  Van 
Dyck's  later  pictures  and  called  by  his  name. 

Evelyn,  describing  a  medal  of  King  Charles  I 
struck  in  1633,  says,  "The  King  wears  a  falling 
band,  a  new  mode  which  has  succeeded  the  cumber- 


200  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

some  ruff;  but  neither  do  the  bishops  nor  the  Judges 
give  it  up  so  soon."  Few  of  the  early  colonial  por- 
traits show  ruffs,  though  the  name  appears  in  many 
inventories,  but  "  playne  bands  "  are  more  frequently 


William  Pyncheon. 

named  than  ruffs.  Thus  in  an  Inventory  of  William 
Swift,  Plymouth,  1642,  he  had  "2  Ruff  Bands  and 
4  Playne  Bands."  The  "  playne  band  "  of  the  Puri- 
tans is  shown  in  this  portrait  of  William  Pyncheon, 
which  is  dated  1657. 


Ruffs  and  Bands  201 

The  first  change  from  the  full  pleated  ruff  of  the 
sixteenth  century  came  in  the  adoption  of  a  richly 
laced  collar,  unpleated,  which  still  stood  up  behind 
the  ears  at  the  back  of  the  head.  Often  it  was  wired 
in  place  with  a  supportasse.  This  was  worn  by  both 
men  and  women.  You  may  see  one  facing  page  122, 
on  the  neck  of  Pocahontas,  her  portrait  painted  in 
1 616.  This  collar,  called  a  standing-band,  when 
turned  down  was  known  as  a  falling-band  or  a 
rebato. 

The  rich  lace  falling-band  continued  to  be  worn 
until  the  great  flowing  wig,  with  long,  heavy  curls, 
covered  the  entire  shoulders  and  hid  any  band  ;  the 
floating  ends  in  front  were  the  only  part  visible.  In 
time  they  too  vanished.  Pepys  wrote  in  1662, 
"  Put  on  my  new  lace  band  and  so  neat ;  am  re- 
solved my  great  expense  shall  be  lace  bands,  and  it 
will  set  off  anything  else  the  more." 

I  scarcely  need  to  point  out  the  falling-band  in  its 
various  shapes  as  worn  in  America;  they  can  be 
found  readily  in  the  early  pages  of  this  book.  It 
was  a  fashion  much  discussed  and  at  first  much  dis- 
liked ;  but  the  ruff  had  seen  its  last  day  —  for  men's 
wear,  when  the  old  fellows  who  had  worn  it  in  the 
early  years  of  the  seventeenth  century  dropped  off 
as  the  century  waned.  The  old  Bowdoin  gentleman 
must  have  been  one  of  the  last  to  wear  this  cumber- 
some though  stately  adjunct  of  dress  —  save  as  it 
was  displaced  on  some  formal  state  occasion  or  as 
part  of  a  uniform  or  livery. 

There  is  a  constant  tendency  in  all  times  and 
among  all  English-speaking  folk  to  shorten  names 


202 


Two  Centuries  of  Costume 


and  titles  for  colloquial  purposes ;  and  soon  the 
falling-band  became  the  fall.  In  the  Wits'  Recrea- 
tion are  two  epigrams  which  show  the  thought  of  the 
times  :  — 

"  Why  Women  weare  a   Fall 

"  A  Question  'tis  why  Women  wear  a  fall  ? 
And  truth  it  is  to  Pride  they're  given  all. 
And  Pride,  the  proverb  says,  will  have  a  fall.'*'' 


"Or 


LITTLE     DIMINUTIVE     BaND 


What  is  the  reason  of  God-dam-me's  band, 
Inch  deep  ?  and  that  his  fashion  doth  not  alter, 
God-dam-me  saves  a  labor,  understand 
In  pulling  it  off,  where  he  puts  on  the  Halter.' 


"  God-dam-me  "  was  one  of  the  pleasant  epithets 
which,  by  scores,  were  applied  to  the  Puritans. 

The  bands  worn  by  the 
learned  professions,  two 
strips  of  lawn  with  squared 
ends,  were  at  first  the  elon- 
gated ends  of  the  shirt  col- 
lar of  Jonathan  Edwards. 
We  have  them  still,  to  re- 
mind us  of  old  fashions ; 
and  we  have  another  word 
and  thing,  band-box,  which 
must  have  been  a  stern  ne- 
cessity in  those  days  of 
starch,  and  ruff,  and  band. 
It  was  by  no  means  a  convention  of  dress  that 
God-dam-me  "  should  wear  a  small  band.     Neither 


Reverend  Jonathan  Edwards. 


Ruffs  and  Bands  203 

Cromwell  nor  his  followers  clung  long  to  plain  bands  ; 
nor  did  they  all  assume  them.  It  would  be  wholly 
impossible  to  generalize  or  to  determine  the  stand- 
ing of  individuals,  either  in  politics  or  religion,  by 
their  neckwear.  I  have  before  me  a  little  group  of 
prints  of  men  of  Cromwell's  day,  gathered  for  extra 
illustration  of  a  history  of  Cromwell's  time.  Let 
us  glance  at  their  bands. 

First  comes  Cromwell  himself  from  the  Cooper 
portrait  at  Cambridge  ;  this  portrait  has  a  plain  linen 
turnover  collar,  or  band,  but  two  to  three  inches 
wide.  Then  his  father  is  shown  in  a  very  broad, 
square,  plain  linen  collar  extending  in  front  expanse 
from  shoulder  seam  to  shoulder  seam.  Sir  Harry 
Vane  and  Hampden,  both  Puritans,  have  narrow 
collars  like  Cromwell's ;  Pym,  an  equally  precise 
sectarian,  has  a  broader  one  like  the  father's,  but 
apparently  of  some  solid  and  rich  embroidery  like 
cut-work.  Edward  Hyde,  the  Earl  of  Clarendon, 
in  narrow  band,  Lucius  Cary,  Lord  Falkland,  in 
band  and  band-strings,  were  members  of  the  Long 
Parliament,  but  passed  in  time  to  the  Royal  Camp. 
Other  portraits  of  both  noblemen  are  in  richly  laced 
bands.  The  Earl  of  Bristol,  who  was  in  the  same 
standing,  has  the  widest  of  lace,  Vandyked  collars. 
John  Selden  wears  the  plain  band ;  but  here  is 
Strafford,  the  very  impersonation  of  all  that  was 
hated  by  Puritans,  and  yet  he  wears  the  simplest  of 
puritanical  bands.  William  Lenthal,  Speaker  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  is  in  a  beautiful  Cavalier  collar 
with  straight  lace  edges.  There  are  a  score  more, 
equally  indifferent  to  rule. 


204  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

There  is  no  doubt,  however,  that  the  Puritan  re- 
garded his  plain  band  —  if  he  wore  it  —  with  jealous 
care.  Poor  Mary  Downing,  niece  of  Governor 
Winthrop,  paid  dearly  for  her  careless  "searing,"  or 
ironing,  of  her  brother's  bands.  Her  stepmother's 
severity  at  her  offence  brought  forth  this  plaintive 
letter :  — 

"  Father,  I  trust  that  I  have  not  provoked  you  to  har- 
bour soe  ill  an  opinion  of  mee  as  my  mothers  lres  do 
signifie  and  give  me  to  understand;  the  ill  opinion  and 
hard  pswasion  which  shee  beares  of  mee,  that  is  to  say,  that 
I  should  abuse  yor  goodness,  and  bee  prodigall  of  yor  purse, 
neglectful  of  my  brothers  bands,  and  of  my  slatterishnes 
and  lasines  ;  for  my  brothers  bands  I  will  not  excuse  my- 
selfe,  but  I  thinke  not  worthy  soe  sharpe  a  reproofe ;  for 
the  rest  I  must  needs  excuse,  and  cleare  myselfe  if  I  may 
bee  believed.  I  doe  not  know  myselfe  guilty  of  any  of 
them;  for  myne  owne  part  I  doe  not  desire  to  be  myne 
owne  judge,  but  am  willinge  to  bee  judged  by  them  with 
whom  I  live,  and  see  my  course,  whether  I  bee  addicted  to 
such  things  or  noe." 

Ruffs  and  bands  were  not  the  only  neckwear  of 
the  colonists.  Very  soon  there  was  a  tendency  to 
ornament  the  band-strings  with  tassels  of  silk,  with 
little  tufts  of  ribbon,  with  tiny  rosettes,  with  jewels 
even ;  and  soon  a  graceful  frill  of  lace  hung  where 
the  band  was  tied  together.  This  may  be  termed 
the  beginning  of  the  necktie  or  cravat ;  but  the 
article  itself  enjoyed  many  names,  and  many  forms, 
which  in  general  extended  both  to  men's  and 
women's   wear. 


Captain  George  Curwen. 


Ruffs  and  Bands  205 

Let  us  turn  to  the  old  inventories  for  the  various 
names  of  this  neckwear. 

A  Maryland  gentleman  left  by  will,  with  other 
attire,  in  1642,  "Nine  laced  stripps,  two  plain 
stripps,  nine  quoifes,  one  call,  eight  crosse-cloths,  a 
paire  holland  sleeves,  a  paire  women's  cuffs,  nine 
plaine  neck-cloths,  five  laced  neck-cloths,  two  plaine 
gorgetts,  seven  laced  gorgetts,  three  old  clouts,  five 
plaine  neckhandkerchiefs,  two  plain  shadowes." 

John  Taylor,  the  "  Water  Poet,"  wrote  a  poem 
entitled  The  Needles  Excellency.  I  quote  from  the 
twelfth  edition,  dated  1640.  In  the  list  of  gar- 
ments which  we  owe  to  the  needle  he  names  :  — 

"Shadows,  Shapparoones,  Cauls,  Bands,  Ruffs,  Kuffs, 
Kerchiefs,  Ouoyfes,  Chin-clouts,  Marry -muffes, 
Cross-cloths,  Aprons,  Hand-kerchiefs,  or  Falls." 

His  list  runs  like  that  of  the  Maryland  planter. 
The  strip  was  something  like  the  whisk  ;  indeed, 
the  names  seem  interchangeable.     Bishop  Hall  in  his 

Satires  writes  :  — 

"  When  a  plum'd  fan  may  hide  thy  chalked  face 
And  lawny  strips  thy  naked  bosom  grace." 

Dr.  Smith  wrote  in  1658  in  Penelope  and  Ulysses :  — 

"  A  stomacher  upon  her  breast  so  bare 

For  strips  and  gorget  were  not  then  the  wear." 

The  gorget  was  the  frill  in  front ;  the  strip  the  lace 
cape  or  whisk.  It  will  be  noted  that  nine  gorgets 
are  named  with  these  strips. 

The  gorget  when  worn  by  women  was  enriched 
with  lace  and  needlework. 


206  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

"  These  Holland  smocks  as  white  as  snow 

And  gorgets  brave  with  drawn-work  wrought 
A  tempting  ware  they  are  you  know." 

Thus  runs  a  poem  published  in  1596. 

Mary  Verney  writes  in  1642  her  desire  for  "  gor- 
getts  and  eyther  cutt  or  painted  callico  to  wear 
under  them  or  what  is  most  in  fashion." 

The  shadow  has  been  a  great  stumbling-block  to 
antiquaries.  Purchas's  Pilgrimage  is  responsible  for 
what  is  to  me  a  very  confusing  reference.  It  says 
of  a  certain  savage  race  :  — 


"  They  have  a  skin  of  leather  hanging  about  their  necks 
whenever  they  sit  bare-headed  and  bare-footed,  with  their 
right  arms  bare  ;  and  a  broad  Sombrero  or  Shadow  in  their 
hands  to  defend  them  in  Summer  from  the  Sunne,  in  Win- 
ter from  the  Rain." 

This  would  make  a  shadow  a  sort  of  hand-screen 
or  sunshade  ;  but  all  other  references  seem  as  if  a 
shadow  were  a  cap.  As  early  as  1580,  Richard 
Fenner's  Wardship  Roll  has  "  Item  a  Caul  and 
Shadoe  4  shillings."  I  think  a  shadow  was  a  great 
cap  like  a  cornet.  Cross-cloths  were  a  form  of 
head-dress.  I  have  seen  old  portraits  with  a  cap  or 
head-dress  formed  of  crossed  bands  which  I  have 
supposed  were  cross-cloths. 

Cross-cloths  also  bore  a  double  meaning;  for 
certainly  neck-cloths  or  neckerchiefs  were  some- 
times called  cross-cloths  or  cross-clothes.  Another 
name  is  the  picardill  or  piccadilly,  a  French  title 
for  a  gorget.      Fitzgerald,  in    16 17,    wrote   of  "a 


Ruffs  and  Bands 


207 


spruse    coxcomb "    that    he    glanced   at   his  pocket 
looking-glass  to  see  :  — 

"  How  his  Band  jumpeth  with  his  Peccadilly 
Whether  his  Band-strings  ballance  equally." 

Another  satirical  author  could  write  in  1638  that 
"  pickadillies  are  now  out  of  request." 

The  portrait  of  Captain  Curwen  of  Salem  (fac- 
ing page  204)  is  unlike  many  of  his  times.  Over 
his  doublet  he 
wears  a  hand- 
some embroid- 
ered shoulder 
sash  called  a 
trooping-scarf; 
and  his  broad 
lace  tie  is  very 
unusual  for  the 
year  1660.  I 
know  few  like 
it  upon  Amer- 
ican gentlemen 
in  portraits; 
and  I  fancy  it 
is  a  gorget,  or 
a  piccadilly.  It 
is  pleasant  to  know  that  this  handsome  piece  of 
lace  has  been  preserved.  It  is  here  shown  with  his 
cane. 

A  little  negative  proof  may  be  given  as  to  one 
.word  and  article.  The  gorget  is  said  to  be  an 
adaptation  of  the  wimple.      Our  writers  of  historical 


Lace  Gorget  and  Cane  of   Captain  George 
Curwen. 


208  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

tales  are  very  fond  of  attiring  their  heroines  in 
wimples  and  kirtles.  Both  have  a  picturesque,  an 
antique,  sound  —  the  wimple  is  Biblical  and  Shake- 
sperian,  and  therefore  ever  satisfying  to  the  ear, 
and  to  the  sight  in  manuscript.  But  1  have  never 
seen  the  word  wimple  in  an  inventory,  list,  invoice, 
letter,  or  book  of  colonial  times,  and  but  once  the 
word  kirtle.  Likewise  are  these  modern  authors  a 
bit  vague  as  to  the  manner  of  garment  a  wimple  is. 
One  fair  maid  is  described  as  having  her  fair  form 
wrapped  in  a  warm  wimple.  She  might  as  well  be 
described  as  wrapped  in  a  warm  cravat.  For  a 
wimple  was  simply  a  small  kerchief  or  covering  for 
the  neck,  worn  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth 
centuries. 

Another  quaint  term,  already  obsolete  when  the 
Mayflower  sailed,  was  partlet.  A  partlet  was  an 
inner  kerchief,  worn  with  an  open-necked  bodice  or 
doublet.  Its  trim  plaited  edge  or  ruffle  seems  to 
have  given  rise  to  the  popular  name,  "  Dame  Part- 
let,"  for  a  hen.  It  appeared  in  the  reign  of  Henry 
VIII  ;  the  courtiers  imitating  the  king  threw  open 
their  garments  at  the  throat,  and  further  opened 
them  with  slashes ;  hence  the  use  of  the  partlet, 
which  was  a  trim  form  of  underhabit  or  gorget, 
worn  well  up  to  the  throat.  An  old  dictionary  ex- 
plains that  the  partlet  can  be  "  set  on  or  taken  off 
by  itself  without  taking  off  the  bodice,  as  can  be 
pickadillies  now-a-days,  or  men's  bands."  It  adds 
that  women's  neckerchiefs  have  been  called  partlets. 

In  October,  1662,  Samuel  Pepys  wrote  in  his 
Diary  >  "  Made  myself  fine  with  Captain  Ferrers  lace 


Ruffs  and  Bands  209 

band  ;  being  loathe  to  wear  my  own  new  scallop  ;  it 
is  so  fine."  This  is  one  of  his  several  references  to 
this  new  fashion  of  band  which  both  he  and  his  wife 
adopted.  He  paid  ^3  for  his  scallop,  and  45J. 
for  one  for  his  wife.  He  was  so  satisfied  with 
his  elegance  in  this  new  scallop,  that  like  many 
another  lover  of  dress  he  determined  his  chief  ex- 
travagance should  be  for  lace.  The  fashion  of 
scallop-wearing  came  to  America.  For  several  years 
the  word  was  used  in  inventories,  then  it  became  as 
obsolete  as  a  caul,  a  shadow,  a  cornet. 

The  word  "  cravat"  is  not  very  ancient.  Its  deri- 
vation is  said  to  be  from  the  Cravates  or  Croats  in 
the  French  military  service,  who  adopted  such  neck- 
wear in  1636.  An  early  use  of  the  word  is  by 
Blount  in  1656,  who  called  a  cravat  "a  new  fash- 
ioned Gorget  which  Women  wear." 

The  cravat  is  a  distinct  companion  of  the  wig, 
and  was  worn  whenever  and  wherever  wigs  were 
donned. 

Evelyn  gave  the  year  1666  as  the  one  when  vest, 
cravat,  garters,  and  buckles  came  to  be  the  fashion. 
We  could  add  likewise  wigs.  Of  course  all  these 
had  been  known  before  that  year,  but  had  not 
been  general  wear. 

An  early  example  of  a  cravat  is  shown  in  the 
portrait  of  old  William  Stoughton  in  my  later 
chapter  on  Cloaks.  His  cravat  is  a  distinctly  new 
mode  of  neck-dressing,  but  is  found  on  all  Ameri- 
can portraits  shortly  after  that  date.  One  is  shown 
with  great  exactness  in  the  portrait  on  page  210, 
which    is  asserted    to  be  that  of  "  the   handsomest 


2IO 


Centuries  of  Costume 


man  in  the  Plantations,"  William  Coddington,  Gov- 
ernor of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Plantations. 
He  was  a  precise  man,  and  wearisome  in  his 
precision  —  a  bore,  even,  I  fear.  His  beauty  went 
for  little  in  his  relation  of  man  to  man,  and,  above 

all,  of  colonist 
to  colonist; 
and  poor  Gov- 
ernor W  i  n  - 
t  h  r  o  p  must 
have  been  sore- 
ly tormented 
with  his  fre- 
quent letters, 
which  might 
have  been  writ- 
ten from  Mars 
for  all  the  signs 
they  bore  of 
news  of  things 
of  this  earth. 
His  dress  is 
very  neat  and 
rich  —  a  char- 
acteristic dress, 

Governor  Coddington.  I  think.     It  has 

slightly  wrought  buttonholes,  plain  sleeve  ruffles  and 
gloves.  His  full  curled  peruke  has  a  mass  of  long 
curls  hanging  in  front  of  the  right  shoulder,  while 
the  curls  on  the  left  side  are  six  or  eight  inches  shorter. 
This  was  the  most  elegant  London  fashion,  and 
extreme  fashion  too.      His  neck-scarf  or  cravat  was 


Ruffs  and  Bands 


211 


a  characteristic  one.  It  consisted  of  a  long  scarf 
of  soft,  fine,  sheer,  white  linen  over  two  yards  long, 
passed  twice  or  thrice  close  around  the  throat  and 
simply  lapped  under  the  chin,  not  knotted.  The 
upper  end  hung  from 
twelve  to  sixteen  inches 
long.  The  other  and 
longer  end  was  carried 
down  to  a  low  waist- 
line and  tucked  in  be- 
tween the  buttons  of 
the  waistcoat.  Often 
the  free  end  of  this 
scarf  was  trimmed  with 
lace  or  cut-work ;  in- 
deed, the  whole  scarf 
might  be  of  embroid- 
ery or  lace,  but  the 
simpler  lawn  or  mull 
appears  to  have  been 
in  better  taste.  This  tie  is  seen  in  this  portrait  of 
Thomas  Fayerweather,  by  Smybert,  and  in  modi- 
fied forms  on  many  other  pages. 

We  now  find  constant  references  to  the  Steinkirk, 
a  new  cravat.  As  we  see  it  frequently  stated  that 
the  Steinkirk  was  a  black  tie,  I  may  state  here  that 
all  the  Steinkirks  I  have  seen  have  been  white.  I 
know  no  portraits  with  black  neck-cloths.  I  find 
no  allusions  in  old-time  literature  or  letters  to  black 
Steinkirks. 

A  Steinkirk  was  a  white  cravat,  not  knotted,  but 
fastened  so   looselv  as   to  seem   folded  rather  than 


Thomas  Fayerweather. 


212  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

tied,  twisted  sometimes  twice  or  thrice,  with  one  or 
both  ends  passed  through  a  buttonhole  of  the  coat. 
Ladies  wore  them,  as  well  as  men,  arranged  with 
equal  appearance  of  careless  negligence ;  and  the 
soft  diagonal  folds  of  linen  and  lace  made  a  pretty 
finish  at  the  throat,  as  pretty  as  any  high  neck- 
dressing  could  be.  These  cravats  were  called  Stein- 
kirks  after  the  battle  of  Steinkirk,  when  some  of 
the  French  princes,  not  having  time  to  perform  an 
elaborate  toilet  before  going  into  action,  hurriedly 
twisted  their  lace  cravats  about  their  necks  and 
pulled  them  through  a  buttonhole,  simply  to  fix 
them  safely  in  place.  The  fashionable  world  eagerly 
followed  their  example.  It  is  curious  that  the 
Steinkirk  should  have  been  popular  in  England, 
where  the  name  might  rather  have  been  a  bitter 
avoidance. 

The  battle  of  Steinkirk  took  place  in  1694.  An 
early  English  allusion  to  the  neckwear  thus  named 
is  in  The  Relapse^  which  was  acted  in  1697.  In  it 
the  Semstress  says,  "  I  hope  your  Lordship  is 
pleased  with  your  Steenkirk."  His  Lordship  an- 
swers with  eloquence,  "  In  love  with  it,  stap  my 
vitals !  Bring  your  bill,  you  shall  be  paid  to- 
morrow !  " 

The  Steinkirk,  both  for  men's  and  women's  wear, 
came  to  America  very  promptly,  and  was  soon  widely 
worn.  The  dashing,  handsome  figure  of  young 
King  Carter  gives  an  illustration  of  the  pretty  studied 
negligence  of  the  Steinkirk.  I  have  seen  a  Stein- 
kirk tie  on  at  least  twenty  portraits  of  American 
gentlemen,  magistrates,  and  officers  ;  some  of  them 


"King"  Carter  in  Youth,  by  Sir  Godfrey  Kneller. 


Ruffs  and  Bands  213 

were  the  royal  governors,  but  many  were  American 
born  and  bred,  who  never  visited  Europe,  but  turned 
eagerly  to  English  fashions. 

Certain  old  families  have  preserved  among  their 
ancient  treasures  a  very  long  oval  brooch  with  a  bar 
across  it  from  end  to  end  —  the  longest  way  of  the 
brooch.  These  are  set  sometimes  with  topaz  or 
moonstone,  garnet,  marcasite,  heliotropium,  or  paste 
jewels.  Many  wonder  for  what  purpose  these  were 
used.  They  were  to  hold  the  lace  Steinkirk  in 
place,  when  it  was  not  pulled  through  the  button- 
hole. The  bar  made  it  seem  like  a  tongueless 
buckle  —  or  perhaps  it  was  like  a  long,  narrow 
buckle  to  which  a  brooch  pin  had  been  affixed  to 
keep  it  firmly  in  place. 

The  cravat,  tied  and  twisted  in  Steinkirk  form,  or 
more  simply  folded,  long  held  its  place  in  fashion- 
able dress. 

"The  stock  with  buckle  made  of  paste 
Has  put  the  cravat  out  of  date," 

wrote  Whyte  in  1742. 

With  this  quotation  we  will  turn  from  neckwear 
until  a  later  period. 


CHAPTER    VII 

CAPS    AND    BEAVERS    IN    COLONIAL     DAYS 

"  So  many  poynted  cappes 
Lased  ivith  double  flaps 
And  soe  gay  felted  cappes 
Saiv  I  never. 


So  propre  cappes 
So  lyttle  hattes 
And  so  false  hartes 
Saw  I  never." 

'  The  Maner  of  the  World  No we~a-dayes,"  John   Skelton,  1548. 


"  The  Turk  in  linen  wraps  his  head 
The  Persian  his  in  lawn,  too, 
The  Russ  with  sables  furs  his  cap 
And  change  will  not  be  drawn  to. 

"  The  Spaniard' 's  constant  to  his  block 
The  Frenchman  inconstant  ever; 
But  of  all  felts  that  may  be  felt 
Give  me  the  English  beaver. 

"  The  German  loves  his  coney-wool 
The  Irishman  his  shag,  too, 
The  Welsh  his  Monmouth  loves  to  wear 
And  of  the  same  will  brag,  too." 

—  "A  Challenge  for  Beauty,"  Thomas  Hayward. 


CHAPTER   VII 


CAPS    AND    BEAVERS    IN    COLONIAL    DAYS 


NY  student  of  English  history  and 
letters  would  know  that  caps  would 
positively  be  part  of  the  outfit  of 
every  emigrating  Englishman.  A  cap 
was,  for   centuries,   both   the   enforced 

and  desired  headwear  of  English  folk  of  quiet  lives. 
Belgic  Britons,  Welshmen,  Irish,  Anglo-Saxons, 

Danes,  and  Normans 

all  had  worn  caps,  as 

well  as  ancient  Greeks 

and  Romans.    These 

English  caps  had  been 

of  divers  colors  and 

manifold  forms,  some 

being    grotesque    in- 
deed. When  we  reach 

the   reign   of  Henry 

VIII    we    are    made 

familiar  in  the  paint- 
ings of  Holbein  with 

a      certain      flat -cap 

which  sometimes  had 

asmall  jewel  or  feather 

or  a  double  fold,  but  never  varied  greatly.      This 

was  known  as  the  city  flat-cap. 
217 


City  Flat-cap  worn  by 


2i 8  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

It  is  shown  also  in  the  1  lolbein  portrait  of  Adam 
Winthrop,  grandfather  of  Governor  John  Winthrop  ; 
he  was  a  man  of  dignity,  Master  of  the  Cloth  Work- 
ers' Guild. 

The  muffin-cap  of  the  boys  of  Christ's  Hospital 
is  a  form  of  this  cap. 

This  was  at  first  and  ever  a  Londoner's  cap.  A 
poet  wrote  in  1630  :  — 

"  Flat  caps  as  proper  are  to  city  gowns 

As  to  armour,  helmets,  or  to  kings,  their  crowns." 

Winthrop  also  wears  the  city  gown. 
This  flat-cap  was  often  of  gay  colors,  scarlet  being 
a  favorite  hue. 

"Behold  the  bonnet  upon  my  head 
A  staryng  colour  of  scarlet  red 
I  promise  you  a  fyne  thred 

And  a  soft  wool 

It  cost  a  noble." 

These  lines  were  written  for  the  character  "  Pride," 
in  the  Interlude  of  Nature,  before  the  year  1500. 

A  statute  was  passed  in  1571,  "  If  any  person 
above  six  years  of  age  (except  maidens,  ladies,  gentle- 
men, nobles,  knights,  gentlemen  of  twenty  marks 
by  year  in  lands,  and  their  heirs,  and  such  as  have 
born  office  of  worship)  have  not  worn  upon  the 
Sunday  or  holyday  (except  it  be  in  the  time  of  his 
travell  out  of  the  city,  town  or  hamlet  where  he 
dwelleth)  one  cap  of  wool,  knit,  thicked  and  dressed 
in  England,  and  only  dressed  and  furnished  by  some 
of  the  trade  of  cappers,  shall  be  fined  £2  4^-  f°r  eac^ 


Caps  and   Beavers  in   Colonial   Days       219 

day's  transgression."  The  caps  thus  worn  were 
called  Statute  caps. 

This  was,  of  course,  to  encourage  wool-workers  in 
the  pride  of  the  nation.  Winthrop,  master  of  a 
guild  whose  existence  depended  on  wool,  would,  of 
course,  wear  a  woollen  cap  had  he  not  been  a  Lon- 
doner. It  was  a  plain  head-covering,  but  it  was  also 
the  one  worn  by  King  Edward  VI. 

There  was  a  formal  coif  or  cap  worn  by  men  of 
dignity  ;  always  worn,  I  think,  by  judges  and  elderly 
lawyers,  ere  the  assumption  of  the  formal  wig. 
This  coif  may  be  seen  on  the  head  of  the  venerable 
Dr.  Dee,  and  also  on  the  head  of  Lord  Burleigh, 
and  of  Thomas  Cecil,  surmounted  with  the  citizen's 
flat-cap.  One  of  these  caps  in  heavy  black  lustring 
lingered  by  chance  in  my  home  —  worn  by  some 
forgotten  ancestor.  It  had  a  curious  loop,  as  may 
be  seen  on  Dr.  Dee.  This  was  not  a  narrow  string 
for  tying  the  coif  on  the  head;  it  was  a  loop. 
And  if  there  was  any  need  of  fastening  the  cap  on 
the  head,  a  narrow  ribbon  or  ferret,  a  lacing,  was  put 
through  both  loops. 

In  the  inventory  of  the  apparel  of  the  first  settlers 
which  I  have  given  in  the  early  pages  of  this  book, 
we  find  that  each  colonist  to  the  Massachusetts  Bay 
settlement  had  one  Monmouth  cap  and  five  red 
milled  caps.  All  the  lists  of  necessary  clothing  for 
the  planters  have  as  an  item,  caps  ;  but  a  well-made, 
well-lined  hat  was  also  supplied. 

Monmouth  caps  were  in  general  wear  in  England. 
Thomas  Fuller  said,  "  Caps  were  the  most  ancient, 
general,  warm,  and    profitable    coverings  of   men's 


220 


Two   Centuries  of  Costume 


heads  in  this  Island."  In  making  them  thousands 
of  people  were  employed,  especially  before  the  in- 
vention of  fulling-mills,  when  caps  were  wrought, 
beaten,  and  thickened  by  the  hands  and  feet  of  men. 
Cap-making  afforded  occupation  to  fifteen  differ- 
ent callings:  carders,  spinners,  knitters,  parters  of 
wool,  forcers,  thickers,  dressers,  walkers,  dyers,  bat- 
tellers,  shearers,  pressers,  edgers,  liners,  and  band- 
makers. 

The  Monmouth 
caps  were  worth  two 
shillings  each,  which 
were  furnished  to 
the  Massachusetts 
colonists.  These 
were  much  affected 
by  seafaring  men. 
We  read,  in  A  Satyr 
on  Sea  Officer s, "  With 
Monmouth  cap  and 
cutlass  at  my  side, 
striding  at  least  a 
yard  at  every  stride." 
"  The  Ballad  of  the 
Caps,"  1656,  gives 
a  wonderful    list   of 


King  James  I  of  England. 


caps, 
are  : 


Among  them 


The  Monmouth  Cap,  the  Saylors  thrum, 
And  that  wherein  the  tradesmen  come, 
The  Physick,  Lavve,  the  Cap  divine, 
And  that  which  crowns  the  Muses  nine, 


Caps  and  Beavers  in  Colonial   Days        221 

The  Cap  that  Fools  do  countenance, 
The  goodly  Cap  of  Maintenance, 

And  any  Cap  what  e're  it  be, 

Is  still  the  sign  of  some  degree. 

"The  sickly  Cap  both  plaine  and  wrought, 

The  Fuddling-cap  however  bought, 

The  quilted,  furred,  the  velvet,  satin, 

For  which  so  many  pates  learn  Latin, 

The  Crewel  Cap,  the  Fustian  pate, 

The  Perriwig,  the  Cap  of  Late, 
And  any  Cap  what  e'er  it  be 
Is  still  the  sign  of  some  degree." 

—  "Ballad  of  the  Caps,"  1656. 

We  seldom  have  in  manuscript  or  print,  in  Amer- 
ica, titles  or  names  given  to  caps  or  hats,  but  one 
occasionally  seen  is  the  term  "  montero-cap,"  spelled 
also  mountero,  montiro,  montearo  ;  and  Washington 
Irving  tells  of  "the  cedar  bird  with  a  little  mon- 
teiro-cap  of  feathers."  Montero-caps  were  fre- 
quently recommended  to  emigrants,  and  useful  dress 
they  were,  being  a  horseman's  or  huntsman's  cap 
with  a  simple  round  crown,  and  a  flap  which  went 
around  the  sides  and  back  of  the  cap  and  which 
could  be  worn  turned  up  or  brought  down  over  the 
back  of  the  neck,  the  ears  and  temples,  thus  making 
a  most  protecting  head-covering.  They  were,  in 
general,  dark  colored,  of  substantial  woollen  stuff, 
but  Sterne  writes  in  Tristram  Shandy  of  a  montero- 
cap  which  he  describes  as  of  superfine  Spanish  cloth, 
dyed  scarlet  in  the  grain,  mounted  all  round  with  fur, 
except  four  inches  in  front,  which  was  faced  with  light 
blue  lightly  embroidered.     It  is  a  montero-cap  which 


222  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

is  seen  on  the  head  of  Bamfylde  Moore  Carew,  the 
"  King  of  the  Mumpers,"  a  most  genial  English 
rogue,  sneak-thief,  and  cheat  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, who  spent  some  of  his  ill-filled  years  in  the 
American  colonies,  whither  he  was  brought  after 
being  trepanned,  and  where  he  had  to  bear  the  igno- 
miny of  wearing  an  iron  collar  welded  around  his 
neck. 

A  montero-cap  seems  to  have  been  the  favorite 
dress  of  rogues.  In  Head's  English  Rogue  we 
read,  "  Beware  of  him  that  rides  in  a  montero-cap 
and  of  him  that  whispers  oft."  The  picaro  Guz- 
man wore  one ;  and  as  montero  is  the  Spanish  word 
for  huntsman,  Head  may  have  obtained  the  word 
from  that  special  scamp,  Guzman,  whose  life  was 
published  in  1633.  ^  ^s  a  veiT  ancient  name,  being 
given  in  Cotgrave  as  a  hood,  or  as  the  horseman's 
helmet.  It  is  worn  still  by  Arctic  travellers  and 
Alpine  climbers.  Sets  of  knitted  montero-caps 
were  presented  by  the  Empress  Eugenie  to  the 
Arctic  expedition  of  1875,  anc^  tne  Jackies  dubbed 
them  "  Eugenie  Wigs." 

Another  and  widely  different  class  of  men  wore 
likewise  the  montero-cap,  the  English  and  Ameri- 
can Quakers.  Thomas  Ellwood,  in  the  early  days 
of  his  Quaker  belief,  suffered  much  for  his  hat,  both 
from  his  fellow  Quakers  and  his  father,  a  Church  of 
England  man.  The  Quakers  thought  his  "  large 
Mountier  cap  of  black  velvet,  the  skirt  of  which 
being  turned  up  in  Folds  looked  somewhat  above 
the  common  Garb  of  a  Quaker."  A  young  priest 
at  another  time  snatched  this  montero-cap  off  be- 


Caps  and   Beavers  in  Colonial   Days        223 


cause  he  wore  it  in  the  presence  of  magistrates,  and 
then  Ellwood's  father  fell  upon  it  in  this  wise  :  — 

"  He  could  not  contain  himself  but  running  upon  me 
with  both  hands,  first  violently  snatcht  off  my  Hat  and 
threw  it  away  and 
then  giving  me 
some  buffets  in 
the  head  said 
Sirrah  get  you  up 
to  your  chamber. 
I  had  now  lost 
one  hat  and  had 
but  one  more. 
The  next  Time 
my  Father  saw  it 
on  my  head  he 
tore  it  violently 
from  me  and  laid 
it  up  with  the 
other,  I  know  not 
where.  Where- 
fore I  put  my 
Mountier  Cap 
which  was  all  I 
had  left  to  wear 
on  my  head,  and 


Fulke  Greville  (Lord  Brooke). 


but  a  little  while  I  had  that,  for  when   my   Father  came 
where  I  was,  I  lost  that  also." 

Finally  the  father  refused  to  let  him  wear  his 
"  Hive,"  as  he  called  the  hat,  at  the  table  while  eating, 
and  thereafter  Ellwood  ate  with  his  father's  servants. 

The  vogue  of  beaver  hats  was  an  important  factor 
in  the  settlement  of  America. 


224  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

The  first  Spanish,  Dutch,  English,  and  French 
colonists  all  came  to  America  to  seek  for  gold  and 
furs.  The  Spaniards  found  gold,  the  Dutch  and 
French  found  furs,  but  the  English  who  found  fish 
found  the  greatest  wealth  of  all,  for  food  is  ever 
more  than  raiment. 

Of  the  furs  the  most  important  and  most  valuable 
was  beaver.  The  English  sent  some  beaver  back  to 
Europe;  the  very  first  ship  to  return  from  Plymouth 
carried  back  two  hogsheads.  Winslow  sent  twenty 
hogsheads  as  early  as  1634,  and  Bradford  shows  that 
the  trade  was  deemed  important.  But  the  wild  crea- 
tures speedily  retreated.  Johnson  declares  that  as 
early  as  1645  tne  beaver  trade  had  left  the  frontier 
post  of  Springfield,  on  the  Connecticut  River. 

From  the  earliest  days  both  the  French  and 
English  crown  had  treated  the  fishing  and  fur  in- 
dustries with  unusual  discretion,  giving  a  monopoly 
to  the  fur  trade  and  leaving  the  fisheries  free,  so  the 
latter  constantly  increased,  while  in  New  England 
the  fur  trade  passed  over  to  the  Dutch,  distinctly  to 
the  advantage  of  the  English,  for  the  lazy  trader  at 
a  post  was  neither  a  good  savage  nor  a  good  citizen, 
while  the  hardy  fishermen  and  bold  sailors  of  New 
England  brought  wealth  to  every  town.  For  some 
years  the  Dutch  appeared  to  have  the  best  of  it,  for 
they  received  ten  to  fifteen  thousand  beaver  skins 
annually  from  New  England;  and  they  had  trading- 
posts  on  Narragansett  and  Buzzards  Bay.  Still  the 
trade  drew  the  Dutch  away  from  agriculture,  and 
the  real  success  of  New  Netherland  did  not  come 
with  furs,  but  with  corn. 


Caps  and  Beavers  in  Colonial   Days        225 


The  fur  trade  was  certainly  an  interesting  factor 
in  the  growth  of  the  Dutch  settlement.  Fort 
Orange,  or  Albany,  called  the  Fuyck,  was  the 
natural  topographical  fuyck  or  trap-net  to  catch  this 
trade,  and  in  the  very  first  season  of  its  settlement  fif- 
teen hundred 
beaverandfive 
hundred  otter 
skins  were  de- 
spatched to 
Holland.  In 
1657  Johannes 
Dyckman  as- 
serted that 
40,900  beaver 
and  otter  skins 
were  sent  that 
year  from  Fort 
Orange  to  Fort 
Amsterdam 
(New  York 
City).  As  these 
skins  were  val- 
ued at  from 
eight  to  ten 
guilders  apiece 
(about  $3.50  and  with  a  purchasing  value  equal  to 
$20  to-day),  it  can  readily  be  seen  what  a  source  of 
wealth  seemed  opened.  The  authorities  at  Fort 
Orange,  the  patroons  of  Renssalaerwyck  and  Bever- 
wyck,  were  not  to  be  permitted  to  absorb  all  this 
wondrous  gain    in  undisturbed   peace.     The  incre- 

VOL.  I  —  Q 


James  Douglas  (Earl  of  Morton). 


226  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

ment  of  the  India  Company  was  diverted  and  hin- 
dered in  various  ways.  Unscrupulous  and  crafty 
citizens  of  Fort  Orange  (independent  handlers  or 
handlers)  and  their  thrifty,  penny-turning  vrouws 
decoyed  the  Indian  trappers  and  hunters  into  their 
peaceful,  honest  kitchens  under  pretence  of  kindly 
Christian  welcome  to  the  peltry-bearing  braves  ;  and 
they  filled  the  guileless  savages  with  Dutch  schnapps, 
or  Barbadoes  "kill-devil,"  until  the  befuddled  or 
half-crazed  Indians  parted  with  their  precious  stores 
of  hard-trapped  skins  and  threw  off  their  well-per- 
spired and  greased  beaver  coats  and  exchanged  them 
for  such  valuable  Dutch  wares  as  knives,  scissors, 
beads,  and  jews'-harps,  or  even  a  few  pints  of  quickly 
vanishing  rum,  instead  of  solid  Dutch  guilders  or 
substantial  Dutch  blankets.  And  even  before  these 
strategic  Dutch  citizens  could  corral  and  fleece  them, 
the  incoming  fur-bearers  had  to  run  as  insinuating  a 
gantlet  of  boschloopers^  bush-runners,  drummers,  or 
"  broakers,"  who  sallied  out  on  the  narrow  Indian 
paths  to  buy  the  coveted  furs  even  before  they  were 
brought  into  Fort  Orange.  Much  legislation  en- 
sued. Scout-buying  was  prohibited.  Citizens  were 
forbidden  "  to  addresse  to  speak  to  the  wilden  of 
trading,"  or  to  entice  them  to  "  traffique,"  or  to 
harbor  them  over  night.  Indian  houses  to  lodge 
the  trappers  were  built  just  outside  the  gate,  where 
the  dickering  would  be  public.  These  were  built  by 
rates  collected  from  all  "  Christian  dealers  "  in  furs. 
But  Indian  paths  were  many,  and  the  water-ways 
were  unpatrolled,  and  kitchen  doors  could  be  slyly 
opened  in  the  dusk ;  so  the  government,  in  spite  of 


Caps  and   Beavers  in  Colonial   Days        227 

laws  and  shelter-houses,  did  not  get  all  the  beaver 
skins.  Too  many  were  eager  for  the  lucrative  and 
irregular  trade ;  agricultural  pursuits  were  alarm- 
ingly neglected ;  other  communities  became  rivals, 
and  the  beavers  soon  were  exterminated  from  the 
valley  of  the  Hudson,  and  by  1660  the  Fort 
Orange  trade  was  sadly  diminished.  The  governor 
of  Canada  had  an  itching  palm,  and  lured  the 
Indians  —  and  beaver  skins  —  to  Montreal.  Thus 
"impaired  by  French  wiles,"  scarce  nine  thousand 
peltries  came  in  1687  to  Fort  Orange.  With  a  few 
fluttering  rallies  until  Revolutionary  times  the  fur 
trade  of  Albany  became  extinct;  it  passed  from  both 
Dutch  and  French,  and  was  dominated  by  the 
Hudson  Bay  Fur  Company. 

So  clear  a  description  of  the  fur  of  the  beaver 
and  the  use  of  the  pelt  was  given  by  Adriaen  van 
der  Donck,  who  lived  at  Fort  Orange  from  the  year 
1 641  to  1646,  and  traded  for  years  with  the  Indians, 
that  it  is  well  to  give  his  exact  words  :  — 

"  The  beaver's  skin  is  rough  but  thickly  set  with  fine 
fur  of  an  ash-gray  color  inclining  to  blue.  The  outward 
points  also  incline  to  a  russet  or  brown  color.  From  the 
fur  of  the  beaver  the  best  hats  are  made  that  are  worn. 
They  are  called  beavers  or  castoreums  from  the  material  of 
which  they  are  made,  and  they  are  known  by  this  name 
over  all  Europe.  Outside  of  the  coat  of  fur  many  shining 
hairs  appear  called  wind-hairs,  which  are  more  properly 
winter-hairs,  for  they  fall  out  in  summer  and  appear  again 
in  winter.  The  outer  coat  is  of  a  chestnut-brown  color, 
the  browner  the  color  the  better  is  the  fur.  Sometimes  it 
will  be  a  little  reddish. 


228  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

"  When  hats  arc  made  of  the  fur,  the  rough  hairs  are 
pulled  out  for  they  are  useless.  The  skins  are  usually  iirst 
sent  to  Russia,  where  they  are  highly  valued  for  their  out- 
side shining  hair,  and  on  this  their  greatest  recommendation 
depends  with  the  Russians.  The  skins  are  used  there  for 
mantle-linings  and  are  also  cut  into  strips  for  borders,  as 
we  cut  rabbit-skins.  Therefore  we  call  the  same  peltries. 
Whoever  has  there  the  most  and  costliest  fur-trimmings  is 
deemed  a  person  of  very  high  rank,  as  with  us  the  finest 
stuffs  and  gold  and  silver  embroideries  are  regarded  as  the 
appendages  of  the  great.  After  the  hairs  have  fallen  out, 
or  are  worn,  and  the  peltries  become  old  and  dirty  and 
apparently  useless,  we  get  the  article  back,  and  convert  the 
fur  into  hats,  before  which  it  cannot  be  well  used  for  this 
purpose,  for  unless  the  beaver  has  been  worn,  and  is  greasy 
and  dirty,  it  will  not  felt  properly,  hence  these  old  peltries 
are  the  most  valuable.  The  coats  which  the  Indians  make 
of  beaver-skins  and  which  they  have  worn  for  a  long  time 
around  their  bodies  until  the  skins  have  become  foul  with 
perspiration  and  grease  are  afterwards  used  by  the  hatters 
and  make  the  best  hats." 

One  notion  about  beaver  must  be  told.  Its  great 
popularity  for  many  years  arose,  it  is  conjectured, 
from  its  original  use  as  a  cap  for  curative  purposes. 
Such  a  beaver  cap  would  "  unfeignedly  "  recover  to 
a  man  his  hearing,  and  stimulate  his  memory  to  a 
wonder,  especially  if  the  "oil  of  castor  "  was  rubbed 
in  his  hair. 

The  beaver  hat  was  for  centuries  a  choice  and 
costly  article  of  dress  ;  it  went  through  many  bi- 
zarre forms.  On  the  head  of  Henry  IV  of  France 
and  Navarre,  as  made  known  in  his  portrait,  is  a  hat 
which  effectually  destroys  all  possibility  of  dignity. 


Elihu  Yale. 


Caps  and  Beavers  in  Colonial  Days        229 

It  is  a  bell-crowned  stove-pipe,  of  the  precise  shape 
worn  later  by  coachmen  and  by  dandies  about  the 
years  1820  to  1830.  It  is  worn  very  much  over  one 
royal  ear,  like  the  hat  of  a  well-set-up,  self-important 
coachman  of  the  palmy  days  of  English  coaching, 
and  gives  an  air  of  absurd  modernity  and  cockney 
importance  to  the  picture  of  a  king  of  great  dignity. 
The  hat  worn  by  James  I,  ere  he  was  King  of  Eng- 
land, is  shown  on  page  220.  It  is  funnier  than  any 
seen  for  years  in  a  comic  opera.  The  hat  worn  by 
Francis  Bacon  is  a  plain  felt,  greatly  in  contrast  with 
his  rich  laced  triple  ruff  and  cuffs  and  embroidered 
garments.  That  of  Thomas  Cecil  on  page  230 
varies  slightly. 

Two  very  singular  shapings  of  the  plain  hat  may 
be  seen,  one  on  page  223  on  the  head  of  Fulke  Gre- 
ville,  where  the  round-topped,  high  crown  is  most 
disproportionate  to  the  narrow  brim.  The  second, 
on  page  225,  shows  an  extreme  sugar-loaf,  almost  a 
pointed  crown. 

A  good  hat  was  very  expensive,  and  important 
enough  to  be  left  among  bequests  in  a  will.  They 
were  borrowed  and  hired  for  many  years,  and  even 
down  to  the  time  of  Queen  Anne  we  find  the  rent 
of  a  subscription  hat  to  be  JC2  6s.  per  annum  !  The 
hiring  out  of  a  hat  does  not  seem  strange  when  hir- 
ing out  clothes  was  a  regular  business  with  tailors. 
The  wife  of  a  person  of  low  estate  hired  a  gown  of 
Queen  Elizabeth's  to  be  married  in.  Tailor  Thomas 
Gylles  complained  of  the  Yeoman  of  the  queen's 
wardrobe  for  suffering  this.  He  writes,  "  The 
copper  cloth  of  gold  gowns  which  were  made  last, 


n° 


Two   Centuries  of  Costume 


and  another,  were  sent  into  the  country  for  the  mar- 
riage of  Lord  Montague."  The  bequest  of  half-worn 
garments  was  highly  regarded.  On  the  very  day  of 
Darnley's  funeral,  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  gave  his 
clothes  to  Bothwell,  who  sent  them  to  his  tailor  to 
be  refitted.  The  tailor,  bold  with  the  riot  and  dis- 
order of  the  time,  returned  them  with  the  impudent 
message  that  "  the  duds  of  dead  men  were  given  to 

the  hangman." 
The  duds  of 
men  who  were 
hanged  were 
given  to  the 
hangman  al- 
most as  long  as 
hangings  took 
place.  A  poor 
New  England 
girl,  hanged  for 
the  murder  of 
her  child,  went 
to  the  scaffold 
in  her  mean- 
est attire,  and 
taunted  the  ex- 
ecutioner that 
he  would  get  but  a  poor  suit  of  clothes  from  her.  The 
last  woman  hanged  in  Massachusetts  wore  a  white 
satin  gown,  which  I  expect  the  sheriff's  daughter  much 
revelled  in  the  following  winter  at  dancing-parties. 

Old    Philip    Stubbes   has    given   us   a  wonderful 
description  of  English  head-gear  :  — 


Thomas  Cecil. 


Caps  and  Beavers  in  Colonial  Days        231 

"  Hats  of  Sundrie  Fations  " 

"  Sometymes  they  vse  them  sharpe  on  the  Croune,  peark- 
ing  vp  like  the  Spire,  or  Shaft  of  a  Steeple,  standyng  -a 
quarter  of  a  yarde  aboue  the  Croune  of  their  heades,  some 
more,  some  lesse,  as  please  the  phantasies  of  their  incon- 
stant mindes.  Othersome  be  flat  and  broad  on  the  Crowne, 
like  the  battlemetes  of  a  house.  An  other  sorte  haue  rounde 
Crownes,  sometymes  with  one  kinde  of  Band,  sometymes 
with  another,  now  black,  now  white,  now  russet,  now  red, 
now  grene,  now  yellowe,  now  this,  now  that,  never  content 
with  one  colour  or  fashion  two  daies  to  an  ende.  And  thus 
in  vanitie  they  spend  the  Lorde  his  treasure,  consuming 
their  golden  yeres  and  siluer  daies  in  wickednesse  and  sinne. 
And  as  the  fashions  bee  rare  and  strange,  so  is  the  stuffe 
whereof  their  hattes  be  made  divers  also ;  for  some  are  of 
Silke,  some  of  Veluet,  some  of  Taffatie,  some  of  Sarcenet, 
some  of  Wooll,  and,  whiche  is  more  curious,  some  of  a  cer- 
taine  kinde  of  fine  Haire  ;  these  they  call  Bever  hattes,  or 
xx.  xxx.  or  xl.  shillinges  price,  fetched  from  beyonde  the  seas, 
from  whence  a  greate  sorte  of  oth'er  vanities  doe  come  be- 
sides. And  so  common  a  thing  it  is,  that  euery  seruyng- 
man,  countrieman,  and  other,  euen  all  indefferently,  dooe 
weare  of  these  hattes.  For  he  is  of  no  account  or  estima- 
tion amongst  men  if  he  haue  not  a  Veluet  or  Taffatie  hatte, 
and  that  must  be  Pincked,  and  Cunnyngly  Carved  of  the 
beste  fashion.  And  good  profitable  hattes  be  these,  for  the 
longer  you  weare  them  the  fewer  holes  they  haue.  Besides 
this,  of  late  there  is  a  new  fashion  of  wearyng  their  hattes 
sprong  vp  amongst  them,  which  they  father  vpon  a  French- 
man, namely,  to  weare  them  with  bandes,  but  how  vnsemely 
(I  will  not  saie  how  hassie)  a  fashion  that  is  let  the  wise 
judge ;  notwithstanding,  howeuer  it  be,  if  it  please  them,  it 
shall  not  displease  me. 

"  And   another    sort   (as   phantasticall   as   the   rest)  are 


232 


Two   Centuries   of  Costume 


content  with  no  kinde  of  hat  without  a  greate  Bunche  of 
Feathers  of  diuers  and  sondrie  Colours,  peakyng  on  top  of 
their  heades,  not  vnlike  (I  dare  not  saie)  Cockescombes,  but 
as  sternes  of  pride,  and  ensignes  of  vanity.  And  yet,  not- 
withstanding these  Flutterying  Sailes,  and  Feathered  Flagges 
of  detiaunce  of  Vertue  (for  so  they  be)  are  so  advanced  that 
euery  child  hath  them  in  his  Hat  or  Cap  ;  many  get  good 
liuing  by  dying  and  selling  of  them,  and  not  a  few  proue 
the  selues  more  than  Fooles  in  wearyng  of  them." 

Notwithstanding  this  list  of  Stubbes,  it  is  very 
curious  to  note  that  in  general  the  shape  of  the 
real  beaver  hat  remained  the  same  as  long  as  it  was 
worn  uncocked. 

The  hat  was  worn  much  more  constantly  within- 
doors than  in  the  present  day.    Pepys  states  that  they 
were  worn  in  church  ;  even 
the  preacher  wore  his  hat. 
Hats  were  removed  in  the 
presence   of  royalty.      An 
hereditary  honor  and  priv- 
ilege granted  to  one  of  my 
ancestors  was  that  he  might 
.■fliHWfffeVw    aPj  l»h        wear  his  hat  before  the  king. 
It  is  somewhat  difficult 
9yH  to   find   out   the  exact  date 

^-^ — '     when  the  wearing  of  hats 

Cornelius  Steinwyck.  hy  men  within-doorS  Ceased 

to  be  fashionable  and  became  distinctly  low  bred. 
We  can  turn  to  contemporary  art.  In  1707  at  a 
grand  banquet  given  in  France  to  the  Spanish  Em- 
bassy, a  ceremonious  state  affair  with  the  women  in 
magnificent  full-dress,  the  men  seated  at  the  table 


Caps  and   Beavers  in  Colonial  Days        133 

and  in  the  presence  of  royalty  wore  their    cocked 
hats  —  so  much  for  courtly  France. 

This  wearing  of  the  hat  in  church,  at  table,  and 
elsewhere  that  seems  now  strange  to  us,  was  largely 
as  an  emblem  of  dignity  and  authority.  Miss  Moore 
in  the  Caldwell  Papers  writes  of  her  grandfather  :  — 

"  I'  my  grandfather's  time,  as  I  have  heard  him  tell,  ilka 
maister  of  a  family  had  his  ain  seat  in  his  ain  house  ;  aye, 
and  sat  there  with  his  hat  on,  afore  the  best  in  the  land  ; 
and  had  his  ain  dish,  and  was  aye  helpit  first  and  keepit  up 
his  authority  as  a  man  should  so.  Parents  were  parents 
then  ;  and  bairns  dared  not  set  up  their  gabs  afore  them  as 
they  do  now." 

That  the  covering  of  the  head  in  church  still  has 
a  significance  on  important  occasions,  is  shown  by  a 
rubric  from  the  "  Form  and  Order  "  for  the  Corona- 
tion of  King  Edward  VII  and  Queen  Alexandra; 
this  provides  that  the  king  remains  uncovered  dur- 
ing the  saying  of  the  Litany  and  the  beginning  of 
the  Communion  Service,  but  when  the  sermon  begun 
that  he  should  put  on  his  "  Cap  of  crimson  velvet 
turned  up  with  Ermine,  and  so  continue,"  to  the  end 
of  the  discourse. 

Hatbands  were  just  as  important  for  men's  hats 
as  women's  —  especially  during  the  years  of  the 
reign  of  James  I.  Endymion  Porter  had  his  wife's 
diamond  necklace  to  wear  on  his  hat  in  Spain.  It 
probably  looked  like  paste  beside  the  gorgeousness 
of  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  who  had  "the  Mirror 
of  France,"  a  great  diamond,  the  finest  in  England, 
"  to  wear    alone    in  your  hat  with    a    little    blacke 


234  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

feather,"  so  the  king  wrote   him.     A  more  curious 

hat  ornament  was  a  glove. 

This  handsome  hat  is  from  a  portrait  of  George, 

Earl  of  Cumberland.  It  has  a  woman's  glove  as  a 
favor.  This  is  said  to  have 
been  a  gift  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beth after  his  prowess  in  a 
tournament.  He  always 
wore  this  glove  on  state  oc- 
casions. Gloves  were  worn 
on  a  hat  in  three  meanings  : 
as   a   memorial    of   a   dead 

friend,  as  a  favor  of  a  mis- 
Hat  with  a  Glove  as  a  Favor.        ^^  Qr  as  &  nwk  q(  cha]_ 

lenge.  A  pretty  laced  or  tasselled  handkerchief  was 
also  a  favor  and  was  worn  like  a  cockade. 

An  excellent  representation  of  the  Cavalier  hat 
may  be  seen  on  the  figure  of  Oliver  Cromwell  (page 
3$),  which  shows  him  dismissing  Parliament.  Cor- 
nelius Steinwyck's  flat-leafed  hat  has  no  feather. 

The  steeple-crowned  hat  of  both  men  and  women 
was  in  vogue  in  the  second  half  of  the  seventeenth 
century  in  both  England  and  America,  at  the  time 
when  the  witchcraft  tragedies  came  to  a  culmination. 
The  long  scarlet  cloak  was  worn  at  the  same  date. 
It  is  evident  that  the  conventional  witch  of  to-day, 
an  old  woman  in  scarlet  cloak  and  steeple-crowned 
hat,  is  a  relic  of  that  day.  Through  the  striking 
circumstances  and  the  striking  dress  was  struck  off  a 
figurative  type  which  is  for  all  time. 

William  Kempe  of  "  Duxburrow"  in  1641  left 
hats,  hat-boxes,  rich  hatbands,  bone  laces,  leather  hat- 


Caps  and  Beavers  in  Colonial  Days        235 

cases;  also  ten  "  capps."  Hats  were  also  made  of 
cloth.  In  the  tailor's  bill  of  work  done  for  Jonathan 
Corwin  of  Salem,  in  1679,  we  reat^  ■  "  To  making  a 
Broadcloth  Hatt  14J.  To  making  2  hatts  &  2  jack- 
ets for  your  two  sonnes  19s."  In  1672  an  associa- 
tion of  Massachusetts  hatters  asked  privileges  and 
protection  from  the  colonial  government  to  aid  and 
encourage  American  manufacture,  but  they  were  re- 
fused until  they  made  better  hats.  Shortly  after, 
however,  the  exportation  of  raccoon  fur  to  England 
was  forbidden,  or  taxed,  as  it  was  found  to  be  useful 
in  the  home  manufacture  of  hats. 

The  eighteenth  century  saw  many  and  varied 
forms  of  the  cocked  hat ;  the  nineteenth  returned  to 
a  straight  crown  and  brim.  The  description  of  these 
will  be  given  in  the  due  course  of  the  narrative  of 
this  book. 


CHAPTER   VIII 


THE    VENERABLE    HOOD 


'■'•Paul  saith,  that  a  woman  ought  to  have  a  Power  on  her 
head.  This  Power  that  some  of  them  have  is  disguised  gear  and 
strange  fashions.  They  must  wear  French  Hoods  —  and  I  can- 
not tell  you  —  / —  what  to  call  it.  And  when  they  make  them 
ready  and  come  to  the  Covering  of  their  Head  they  will  say, 
'  Give  me  my  French  Hood,  and  Give  me  my  Bonnet  or  my 
Cap.''  Now  here  is  a  Vengeance-Devil ;  we  must  have  our 
Power  from  Turkey  of  Velvet,  and  gay  it  must  be  ;  farfetched 
and  dear-bought ;  and  when  it  cometh  it  is  a  False  Sign." 

—  Sermon,  Archbishop  Latimer,  1549. 

'•'•Hoods  are  the  most  ancient  covering  for  the  head  and  far 
more  elegant  and  useful  than  the  more  modern  fashion  of  hats, 
which  present  a  useless  elevation,  and  leave  the  neck  and  ears 
completely  exposed." 

—  "  Glossary  of  Ecclesiastical  Ornament  and  Costume,"  Pugin,  1868. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

THE    VENERABLE    HOOD 

E  are  told  by  the  great  Viollet  le  Due 
that  the  faces  of  fifteenth-century  women 
were  of  a  uniform  type.  Certainly  a 
uniform  head-dress  tends  to  establish 
a  seeming  resemblance  of  the  wearers  ; 
the  strange,  steeple  head-dress  of  that  century  might 
well  have  that  effect ;  and  the  "  French  hood " 
worn  so  many  years  by  English,  French,  and 
American  women  has  somewhat  the  same  effect  on 
women's  countenances  ;  it  gives  a  uniformity  of  se- 
verity. It  is  difficult  for  a  face  to  be  pretty  and 
gay  under  this  gloomy  hood.  This  French  hood 
is  plainly  a  development  of  the  head-rail,  which  was 
simply  an  unshaped  oblong  strip  of  linen  or  stuff 
thrown  over  the  head,  and  with  the  ends  twisted 
lightly  round  the  neck  or  tied  loosely  under  the  chin 
with  whatever  grace  or  elegance  the  individual  wearer 
possessed. 

Varying  slightly  from  reign  to  reign,  yet  never 
greatly  changed,  this  sombre  plain  French  hood 
was  worn  literally  for  centuries.  It  was  deemed  so 
grave  and  dignified  a  head-covering  that,  in  the  reign 
of  Edward  III,  women  of  ill  carriage  were  forbidden 
the  wearing  of  it. 

239 


40 


Two  Centuries  of  Costume 


In  the  year  1472  "  Raye  Hoods,"  that  is,  striped 
hoods,  were  enjoined  in  several  English  towns  as  the 
distinctive  wear  of  women  of  ill  character.  And  in 
France  this  black  hood  was  under  restriction  ;  only 


Gulielma  Penn. 


ladies  of  the  French  court  were  permitted  to  wear 
velvet  hoods,  and  only  women  of  station  and  dig- 
nity, black  hoods. 

This  black  hood  was  dignified  in  allegorical  litera- 
ture as  "the  venerable  hood,"  and  was  ever  chosen 


The  Venerable   Hood  241 

by  limners  to  cover  the  head  of  any  woman  of  age 
or  dignity  who  was  to  be  depicted. 

In  the  Ladies  Dictionary  a  hood  is  denned  thus: 
"  A  Dutch  attire  covering  the  head,  face  and  all  the 
body."  And  the  long  cloak  with  this  draped  hood, 
which  must  have  been  much  like  the  Shaker  cloak 
of  to-day,  seems  to  have  been  deemed  a  Dutch  gar- 
ment. It  was  warm  and  comfortable  enough  to  be 
adopted  readily  by  the  English  Pilgrims  in  Holland. 
It  had  come  to  England,  however,  in  an  earlier  cen- 
tury. Of  Ellinor  Rummin,  the  alewife,  Skelton  wrote 
about  the  year  1 500  :  — 

"  A  Hake  of  Lincoln  greene 
It  had  been  hers  I  weene 
More  than  fortye  yeare 
And  soe  it  doth  appeare 
And  the  greene  bare  threds 
Looked  like  sere  wedes 
Withered  like  hay 
The  wool  worn  awaye 
And  yet  I  dare  saye 
She  thinketh  herself  gaye 
Upon  a  holy  day." 

It  is  impossible  to  know  how  old  this  hood  is. 
When  I  have  fancied  I  had  the  earliest  reference 
that  could  be  found,  I  would  soon  come  to  another 
a  few  years  earlier.  We  know  positively  from  the 
Lisle  Papers  that  it  was  worn  in  England  by  the 
name  "  French  hood  "  in  1 540.  Anne  Basset,  daugh- 
ter of  Lady  Lisle,  had  come  into  the  household  of 
the  queen  of  Henry  VIII,  who  at  that  time  was 
Anne  of  Cleves.     The  "French  Apparell "  which 

VOL.  I  —  R 


242 


Two  Centuries  of  Costume 


the  maid  of  honor  fetched  from  Calais  was  not  pleas- 
ing to  the  queen,  who  promptly  ordered  the  young 
girl  to  wear  "  a  velvet  bonnet  with  a  frontlet  and 
edge  of  pearls."     These  bonnets  are  familiar  to  us 
on  the  head  of  Anne's  predecessor,  Anne   Boleyn. 
They  were  worn  even  by  young  children.     One  is 
shown  on  page  108.     The  young  lady  borrowed  a 
bonnet;   and  a  factor  named  Husee  —  the  biggest 
gossip    of    his    day  —  promptly    chronicles    to    her 
mother,  "  I   saw  her  (Anne  Basset)  yesterday  in  her 
velvet  bonnet  that  my  Lady  Sussex  had  tired  her  in, 
and  thought  it  became  her  nothing  so  well  as  the 
______     French  hood, —  but  the 

Queen's  pleasure  must 
be  done !  " 

Doubtless  some  of 
the  Pilgrim  Mothers 
wore  bonnets  like  this 
one  of  Anne  Basset's, 
especially  if  the  wearer 
were  a  widow,  when 
there  was  also  an  under 
frontlet  which  was  either 
plain,  plaited,  or  folded, 
but  which  came  in  a 
distinct  point  in  the  middle  of  the  forehead. 

This  cap,  or  bandeau,  with  point  on  the  forehead, 
is  precisely  the  widow's  cap  worn  by  Catherine  de 
Medicis.  She  was  very  severe  in  dress,  but  she 
introduced  the  wearing  of  neck-ruffs.  She  also 
wore  hoods,  the  favorite  head-covering  of  all 
Frenchwomen  at  that   time.     This    form   of  head- 


Hannah  Callowhill  Penn. 


The  Venerable  Hood  243 

gear  was  sometimes  called  a  widow's  peak,  on  ac- 
count of  a  similar  peak  of  black  silk  or  white  being 
often  worn  by  widows,  apparently  of  all  European 
nations.  Magdalen  Beeckman,  an  American  woman 
of  Dutch  descent  (facing  page  104),  wears  one.  The 
name  is  still  applied  to  a  pointed  growth  of  hair  on 
the  forehead.  It  has  also  been  known  as  a  head- 
dress of  Mary  Oueen  of  Scots,  because  some  of  her 
portraits  display  this  pointed  outline  of  head-gear. 
It  continued  until  the  time  of  Charles  II.  It  is 
often  found  on  church  brasses,  and  was  plainly  a 
head-gear  of  dignity.  A  modified  form  is  shown  in 
the  portrait  of  Lady  Mary  Armine. 

Stubbes  in  his  Anatomie  of  Abuses  gives  a  notion 
of  the  importance  of  the  French  hood  when  he 
speaks  of  the  straining  of  all  classes  for  rich  attire: 
that  "  every  artificer's  wife  "  will  not  go  without  her 
hat  of  velvet  every  day  ;  "  every  merchant's  wife 
and  meane  gentlewoman"  must  be  in  her  "French 
hood";  and  "every  poor  man's  daughter"  in  her 
"  taffatie  hat  or  of  wool  at  least."  We  have  seen 
what  a  fierce  controversy  burned  over  Madam 
Johnson's  "  schowish  "  velvet  hood. 

An  excellent  account  of  this  black  hood  as  worn 
by  the  Puritans  is  given  in  rhyme  in  "  Hudibras 
Redivivus"  a  long  poem  utterly  worthless  save  for 
the  truthful  descriptions  of  dress  ;    it  runs  :  — 

"  The  black  silk  Hood,  with  formal  pride 
First  roll'd,  beneath  the  chin  was  tied 
So  close,  so  very  trim  and  neat, 
So  round,  so  formal,  so  complete, 
That  not  one  jag  of  wicked  lace 


244  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

Or  rag  of  linnen  white  had  place 
Betwixt  the  black  bag  and  the  face, 
Which  peep'd  from  out  the  sable  hood 
Like  Luna  from  a  sullen  cloud." 

It  was  doubtless  selected  by  the  women  followers 
of  Fox  on  account  of  its  ancient  record  of  sobriety 
and  sanctity. 

"  Are  the  pinch'd  cap  and  formal  hood  the  emblems  of 
sanctitv  ?  Does  your  virtue  consist  in  your  dress,  Mrs. 
Prim  ? " 

writes  Mrs.  Centlivre  in  A  Bold  Stroke  for  a  Wife. 

The  black  hood  was  worn  long  by  Quaker  women 
ere  they  adopted  the  beaver  hat  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  the  poke-bonnet  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. On  page  242  is  given  a  portrait  of  Hannah 
Callowhill  Penn,  a  Quaker,  the  second  wife  of 
William  Penn.  She  was  a  sensible  woman  brought 
up  in  a  home  where  British  mercantile  thrift  vied 
with  Quaker  belief  in  adherence  to  sober  attire,  and 
her  portrait  plainly  shows  her  character.  Penn's 
young  and  pretty  wife  of  his  youth  wears  a  fashion- 
able pocket-hoop  and  rich  brocade  dress  ;  but  she 
wears  likewise  the  simple  black  hood  (page  240). 

The  dominance  of  this  black  French  hood  came 
not,  however,  through  its  wear  by  sober-faced,  dis- 
creet English  Puritans  and  Quakers,  but  through  a 
French  influence,  a  court  influence,  the  earnestness 
of  its  adoption  by  Madame  de  Maintenon,  wife  of 
King  Louis  XIV  of  France.  The  whole  dress  of 
this  strange  ascetic  would  by  preference  have  been 
that  of  a  penitent;  but  the  king  had  a  dislike  of 


The  Venerable  Hood 


245 


anything  like   mourning,  so    she    wore   dresses    of 

some  dark  color  other  than  black,  generally  a  dull 

brown.     The   conventual    aspect  of  her  attire  was 

added  to  by  this  large  black  hood,  which  was  her 

constant    wear,    and    is  ^^^^^^ 

seen    in    her    portraits. 

The  life  at  court  became 

melancholy,      dejected, 

filled  with   icy  reserve. 

And  Madame,  whether 

she  rode  "shut  up  in  a 

close   chair,"   says  Du- 

clos,  "  to  avoid  the  least 

breath  of  air,  while  the 

King    walked    by    her 

side,  taking  off  his  hat 

each  time  he  stopped  to 

speak  to  her"  ;  or  when 

she  attended  services  in 

the  chapel,  sitting  in  a  closed  gallery ;  or  even  in 

her  own  sombre  apartments,  bending  in  silence  over 

ecclesiastic    needlework,  —  everywhere,  her   narrow, 

yellow,  livid  face  was  shadowed  and  buried  in  this 

black  hood. 

Her  strange  power  over  the  king  was  in  force  in 
168 1,  and,  until  his  death  in  17 15,  this  sable  hood, 
so  unlike  the  French  taste,  covered  the  heads  of 
French  women  of  all  ages  and  ranks.  The  genial, 
almost  quizzical  countenance  of  that  noble  and 
charitable  woman,  Madame  de  Miramion,  wears  a 
like  hood. 

This  French  hood  is  prominent  everywhere  in  book 


Madame  de  Miramion. 


246 


Two  Centuries  of  Costume 


illustrations  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  even  of 
earlier  years.  The  loosely  tied  corners  and  the 
sides  appear  under  the  straw  hats  upon  many  of  the 
figures  in  Tempest's  Cryes  of  London,  1698,  such  as 
the  Milk  woman,  the  "  Newes  "  woman,  etc.,  which 

publication,  I  may 
say  in  passing,  is  a 
wonderful  source 
for  the  student  of 
everyday  costume. 
I  give  the  Straw- 
berry Girl  on  this 
page  to  show  the 
ordinary  form  of 
the  French  hood  on 
plain  folk.  Mis- 
son 's  Memories,  pub- 
lished also  in  1698, 
gives  the  milkmaids 
on  Mayday  in  like 
hoods.  The  early 
editions  of  Hudi- 
bras  show  these 
hoods,  and  in  Ho- 
garth's works  they 
may  be  seen  ;  not  always  of  black,  of  course,  in  later 
years,  but  ever  of  the  same  shape. 

The  hood  worn  by  the  Normans  was  called  a 
chaperon.  It  was  a  sort  of  pointed  bag  with  an  oval 
opening  for  the  face  ;  sometimes  the  point  was  of 
great  length,  and  was  twisted,  folded,  knotted.  In 
the  Bodleian   Library  is  a  drawing  of  eleven  figures 


The  Strawberry  Girl. 


The  Venerable  Hood 


247 


with 
man 
and 


of   young    lads    and   girls     playing    Hoodman-blind 
or    Blindman  s-buff.      The   latter   name    came    from 
the   buffet  or    blow  which    the    players    gave 
their    twisted    chaperon    hoods.        The    blind 
simply   put    his    hood    on    "  hind   side  afore,; 
was  effectually  blinded. 
These   figures    are    of 
the  fifteenth  century. 

The  wild  latitude  of 
spelling  often  makes  it 
difficult  to  define  an 
article  of  dress.  I  have 
before  me  a  letter  of 
the  year  1704,  written 
in  Boston,  asking  that 
a  riding-hood  be  sent 
from  England  of  any 
color  save  yellow  ;  and 
one  sentence  of  the  in- 
structions reads  thus, 
"  If  'tis  velvet  let  it 
be  a  shabbaroon  ;  if  of 
cioth,  a  French  hood." 
I  abandoned  " shabba- 
roon "  as  a  wholly  lost 
word;  until  Mrs.  Gum- 
mere  announced  that  the  word  was  chaperon,  from 
the  Norman  hood  just  described.  This  chaperon  is 
specifically  the  hood  worn  by  the  Knights  of  the 
Garter  when  in  full  dress  ;  in  general  it  applies  to 
any  ample  hood  which  completely  covers  head  and 
face  save  for  eye-holes.    Another  hood  was  the  sortie. 


Black  Silk  Hood. 


u 


248  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

The    term  "  coif,"  spelt  in    various   ways,  quoif, 
quoiffe,  coiffer,  ciffer,  quoiffer,  has  been  held  to  ap- 
^  ply  to  the  French 

hood  ;  but  it  cer- 
tainly did  not  in 
America,  for  I  find 
i  often  in  invento- 
ries side  by  side 
items  of  black 
silk  hoods  and 
another  of  quoifs, 
which  I  believe 
were  the  white  un- 
dercaps  worn  with 
the  French  hood ; 
just  as  a  coif  was 
the  close  under- 
cap  for  men's 
wear. 


Jr 


Quilted  Hood. 


Through  the  two  centuries  following  the  assump- 
tion of  the  French  hood  came  a  troop  of  hoods, 
though  sometimes  under  other  names.  In  1664 
Pepys  tells  of  his  wife's  yellow  bird's-eye  hood, 
"  very  fine,  to  church,  as  the  fashion  now  is." 
Planche  says  hoods  were  not  displaced  by  caps  and 
bonnets  till  George  II's  time. 

In  the  list  of  the  "  wedding  apparell "  of  Madam 
Phillips,  of  Boston,  are  velvet  hoods,  love-hoods, 
and  "  sneal  hoods  "  ;  hoods  of  Persian,  of  lustring, 
of  gauze;  frequently  scarlet  hoods  are  named.  In 
1712  Richard  Hall  sent,  from  Barbadoes  to  Bos- 
ton, a  trunk  of  his  deceased  wife's  finery  to  be  sold, 


The  Venerable  Hood  249 

among  which  was  "  one  black  Flowered  Gauze 
Hoode,"  and  he  added  rather  spitefully  that  he 
"  could  send  better  but  it  would  be  too  rich  for 
Boston."  He  was  a  grandson  of  Madam  Symonds 
of  Ipswich.  Furbelowed  gauze  hoods  were  then 
owned  by  Boston  women,  and  must  have  been 
pretty  things.  Their  delicacy  has  kept  them  from 
being  preserved  as  have  been  velvet  and  Persian 
hoods. 

For  the  years  1673  to  1721  we  have  a  personal 
record  of  domestic  life  in  Boston,  a  diary  which  is 
the  sole  storehouse  to  which  we  can  turn  for  inti- 
mate knowledge  of  daily  deeds  in  that  little  town. 
A  scant  record  it  is,  as  to  wearing  apparel ;  for  the 
diary-writer,  Samuel  Sewall,  sometime  business  man, 
friend,  neighbor,  councillor,  judge,  —  and  always 
Puritan,  —  had  not  a  regard  of  dress  as  had  his  Eng- 
lish contemporary,  the  gay  Samuel  Pepys,  or  even 
that  sober  English  gentleman,  John  Evelyn.  In 
Pepys's  pages  we  have  frequent  and  light-giving 
entries  as  to  dress,  interested  and  interesting  entries. 
In  Judge  Sewall's  diary,  any  references  to  dress  are 
wholly  accidental  and  not  related  as  matters  of  any 
moment,  save  one  important  exception,  his  attitude 
toward  wigs  and  wig-wearing.  I  could  wish  Sewall 
had  had  a  keener  eye  for  dress,  for  he  wrote  in 
strong,  well-ordered  English ;  and  when  he  was 
deeply  moved  he  wrote  with  much  color  in  his  pen. 
The  most  spirited  episodes  in  the  book  are  the 
judge's  remarkable  and  varied  courtships  after  he 
was  left  a  widower  at  the  age  of  sixty-five,  and  again 
when  sixty-eight.     While  thus  courting  he  makes 


250  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

almost  his  sole  reference  to  women's  dress,  —  that 
Madam  Mico  when  he  called  came  to  him  in  a 
splendid  dress,  and  that  Madam  Winthrop's  dress, 
after  she  had  refused  him,  was  "  not  so  clean  as 
sometime  it  had  been."  But  an  article  of  his  own 
dress,  nevertheless,  formed  an  important  factor  in 
his  unsuccessful  courtship  of  Madam  Winthrop  — 
his  hood.  When  all  the  other  widowers  of  the 
community,  dignified  magistrates,  parsons,  and  men 
of  professions,  all  bourgeoned  out  in  stately  full- 
bottomed  wigs,  what  woman  would  want  to  have 
a  lover  who  came  a-courting  in  a  hood  ?  A  de- 
tachable hood  with  a  cloak,  I  doubt  not  he  wore, 
like  the  one  owned  by  Judge  Curwen,  his  associate 
in  that  terrible  tale  of  Salem's  bigotry,  cruelty,  and 
credulity,  the  Witchcraft  Trial.  I  cannot  fancy 
Judge  Sewall  in  a  scarlet  cloak  and  hood  —  a  sad- 
colored  one  seems  more  in  keeping  with  his  tem- 
perament. 

Perhaps  our  old  friend,  the  judge,  wore  his  hood 
under  his  hat,  as  did  the  sober  citizens  in  Piers 
Plowman  ;  and  as  did  judges  in  England. 

It  is  certain  that  many  men  wore  hoods ;  and 
they  wore  occasionally  a  garment  which  was  really 
woman's  wear,  namely,  a  "  riding  hood  "  ;  which  was 
also  called  a  Dutch  hood,  and  was  like  Elinor  Rum- 
min's  hake.  This  riding-hood  was  really  more  of 
a  cloak  than  a  head-covering,  as  it  often  had  arm- 
holes.  It  might  well  be  classed  with  cloaks.  I 
may  say  here  that  it  is  not  possible,  either  by  years 
or  by  topics,  to  isolate  completely  each  chapter  of 
this    book  from  the  other.      Its  very  arrangement, 


The  Venerable  Hood 


251 


being  both  by  chronology  and  subject,  gives  me 
considerable  liberty,  which  I  now  take  in  this  chap- 
ter, by  retaining  the  riding-hood  among  hoods, 
simply  because  of  its  name. 

On  May  6,  17 17,  the  Boston  News  Letter  gave  a 
description  of  a  gayly  attired  Indian  runaway;  she 
wore  off  a  "  red  Camb-  v — — __ 
let  Ryding  Hood  fac'd 
with  blue."  Another 
servant  absconded  with 
an  orange-colored  rid- 
ing-hood with  arm- 
holes.  I  have  an  ancient 
pattern  of  a  riding- 
hood  ;  it  was  found  in 
the  bottom  of  an  old 
hair-covered  trunk.  It 
was  marked  "  London 
Ryding  Hood."  With 
it  were  rolled  several 
packages  of  bits  of  wool- 
len stuff,  one  of  scarlet 
broadcloth,  one  of  blue 
camlet,  plainly  labelled 
"  Cuttings  from  Ap- 
phia's  ryding  hood  "  and  "  Pieces  from  Mary's  ryd- 
ing hood,"  showing  that  they  had  been  placed  there 
with  the  pattern  when  the  hood  was  cut.  It  is  a 
cape,  cut  in  a  deep  point  in  front  and  back  ;  the 
extreme  length  of  the  points  from  the  collar  being 
about  twenty-six  inches.  The  hood  is  precisely  like 
the  one  on  judge  Curwen's  cloak,  like  the  hoods  of 


Pink  Silk  Hood. 


252 


Two  Centuries  of  Costume 


Pug  Hood. 


Shaker  cloaks.  As  bits  of  silk  are  rolled  with  the  wool 
pieces,  I  infer  that  these  riding-hoods  were  silk  lined. 
A  most  romantic  name  was  given  to  the  riding- 
hood  after  the  battle  of  Preston  in  17 15.  The  Earl 
of  Nithsdale,  after  the  defeat  of  the  Jacobites,  was 
imprisoned  in  the  Tower  of  London  under  sentence 
of  death.  From  thence  he  made  his  escape  through 
his  wife's  coolness  and  ingenuity.  She  visited  him 
dressed  in  a  large  riding-hood  which  could  be  drawn 
closely  over  her  face.  He  escaped  in  her  dress  and 
hood,  fled  to  the  continent,  and  lived  thirty  years 
in  safety  in  France.  After  that  dashing  rescue, 
these  hoods  were  known  as  Nithsdales.  The  head- 
covering  portion   still  resembled  the  French  hood, 


The  Venerable  Hood  253 

but  the  shoulder-covering  portion  was  circular  and 
ruffled  —  according  to  Hogarth.  In  Durfey's  Wit 
and  Mir  thy  17 19,  is  a  spirited  song  commemorating 
this  "  sacred  wife,"  who  — 

ft  by  her  Wits  immortal  pains 
With  her  quick  head  has  saved  his  brains." 

One  verse  runs  thus  :  — 

"  Let  Traitors  against  Kings  conspire 
Let  secret  spies  great  Statesmen  hire, 
Nought  shall  be  by  detection  got 
If  Woman  may  have  leave  to  plot. 
There's  nothing  clos'd  with  Bars  or  Locks 
Can  hinder  Night-rayls,  Pinners,  Smocks  ; 
For  they  will  everywhere  make  good 
As  now  they've  done  the  Riding-hood." 

In  1737  "pug  hoods  "  were  in  fashion.  We  have 
no  proof  of  their  shape,  though  I  am  told  they  were 
the  close,  plain,  silk  hood  sometimes  worn  under 
other  hoods.  One  is  shown  on  page  252.  Pump- 
kin hoods  of  thickly  wadded  wool  were  prodigiously 
hot  head-coverings ;  they  were  crudely  pumpkin 
shaped.  Knitted  hoods,  under  such  names  as 
"comforters,"  "fascinators,"  "rigolettes,"  "nubias," 
"opera  hoods,"  "molly  hoods,"  are  of  nineteenth- 
century  invention. 


CHAPTER    IX 

CLOAKS    AND    THEIR    COUSINS 

"  Within  my  memory  the  Ladies  covered  their  lovely  Necks 
with  a  Cloak,  this  ivas  exchanged  for  the  Manteel ;  this  again 
was  succeeded  by  the  Pelorine ;  the  Pelorine  by  the  Neckatee ; 
the  Neckatee  by  the  Capuchin,  which  hath  now  stood  its  ground 
for  a  long  timer  _  ,<Covent  Garden  Journal>  -  May  x_  I?52. 


"  Mary  Wallace  and  Clemintina  Ferguson  Just  arrived 
from  the  Kingdom  of  Ireland  intend  to  follow  the  business  of 
Mantua  making  and  have  furnished  themselves  from  London 
in  patterns  of  the  following  kinds  of  wear,  and  have  fixed 
a  correspondence  so  to  have  from  thence  the  earliest  Fashions 
in  Miniature.  They  are  at  Peter  Clarke's  within  two  doors 
of  William  Walton 's,  Esq.,  in  the  Fly.  Ladies  and  Gentle- 
men that  employ  them  may  depend  on  being  expeditiously  and 
reasonably  served  in  making  the  folloiuing  Articles,  that  is  to 
say  —  Sacks,  Negligees,  Negligee-night-gowns,  plain-night- 
goivns,  pattanlears,  shepherdesses,  Roman  cloaks,  Cardinals, 
Capuchins,  Dauphinesses,  Shades  lorrains,  Bonnets  and  Hives." 

—  "  New  York  Mercury,"  May,  1757. 


CHAPTER    IX 

CLOAKS    AND    THEIR    COUSINS 

NDER  the  general  heading  of  cloaks  I 
intend  to  write  of  the  various  capelike 
shoulder-coverings,  for  both  men  and 
women,  which  were  worn  in  the  two 
centuries  of  costume  whereof  this  book 
treats.  Often  it  is  impossible  to  determine  whether 
a  garment  should  be  classed  as  a  hood  or  a  cloak, 
for  so  many  cloaks  were  made  with  head-coverings. 
Both  capuchins  and  cardinals,  garments  of  popularity 
for  over  a  century,  had  hoods,  and  were  worn  as 
head-gear. 

There  is  shown  facing  page  258  a  full,  long 
cloak  of  rich  scarlet  broadcloth,  which  is  the  oldest 
cloak  I  know.  It  has  an  interesting  and  romantic 
history.  No  relic  in  Salem  is  more  noteworthy  than 
this.  It  has  survived  since  witchcraft  days ;  and 
with  right  care,  care  such  as  it  receives  from  its  pres- 
ent owner,  will  last  a  thousand  years.  It  was  worn 
by  Judge  Curwen,  one  of  the  judges  in  those  dark 
hours  for  Salem  ;  and  is  still  owned  by  Miss  Bessie 
Curwen,  his  descendant.  It  will  be  noted  that  it 
bears  a  close  resemblance  to  the  Shaker  cloaks  of 
to-day,  though  the  hood  is  handsomer.  This  hood 
also   is   detached   from   the    cape.       The    presiding 

VOL.   I  —  S  257 


258  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

justice  in  the  Salem  witchcraft  trials  was  William 
Stoughton,  a  severe  Puritan.  In  later  years  Judge 
Sewall,  his  fellow-judge,  in  an  agony  of  contrition, 
remorse,  self-reproach,  self-abnegation,  and  exceed- 
ing sorrow  at  those  judicial  murders,  stood  in  Boston 
meeting-house,  at  a  Sabbath  service  while  his  pastor 
read  aloud  his  confession  of  his  cruel  error,  his  ex- 
pression of  his  remorse  therefor.  A  striking  figure 
is  he  in  our  history.  No  thoughtful  person  can  re- 
gard without  emotions  of  tenderest  sympathy  and 
admiration  that  benignant  white-haired  head,  with 
black  skullcap,  bowed  in  public  disgrace,  which  was 
really  his  honor.  But  Judge  Stoughton  never  ex- 
pressed, in  public  or  private,  remorse  or  even  regret. 
I  doubt  if  he  ever  felt  either.  He  plainly  deemed  his 
action  right.  I  wish  he  could  tell  us  what  he  thinks 
of  it  now.  In  his  portrait  facing  page  260  he  wears 
a  skullcap,  as  does  Judge  Sewall  in  his  portrait,  and 
a  cloak  with  a  cape  like  that  of  his  third  associate, 
Judge  Curwen.  Judge  Sewall  had  both  cloak  and 
hood.  Possibly  all  judges  wore  them.  Judge 
Stoughton's  cloak  has  a  rich  collar  and  a  curious  clasp. 
Stubbes  of  course  told  of  the  fashion  of  cloak- 
wearing  :  — 

"  They  have  clokes  also  in  nothing  discrepant  from  the 
rest ;  of  dyverse  and  sundry  colours,  white  red  tawnie 
black,  green  yellow  russet  purple  violet  and  an  infinyte  of 
other  colours.  Some  of  cloth  silk  velvet  taffetie  and  such 
like;  some  of  the  Spanish  French  or  Dutch  fashion.  Some 
short,  scarcely  reaching  to  the  gyrdlestead  or  waist,  some  to 
the  knee,  and  othersome  trayling  upon  the  ground  almost 
like  gownes  than  clokes.     These  clokes   must    be  garded 


Scarlet  Broadcloth  Hooded  Cloak. 


Cloaks  and  their  Cousins  259 

laced  &  thorouly  full,  and  sometimes  so  lined  as  the  inner 
side  standeth  almost  in  as  much  as  the  outside.  Some 
have  sleeves,  othersome  have  none.  Some  have  hoodes  to 
pull  over  the  head,  some  have  none.  Some  are  hanged  with 
points  and  tassels  of  gold  silver  silk,  some  without  all  this. 
But  howsoever  it  bee,  the  day  hath  bene  when  one  might 
have  bought  him  two  Clokes  for  lesse  than  now  he  can 
have  one  of  these  Clokes  made  for.  They  have  such  store 
of  workmanship  bestowed  upon  them." 

It  is  such  descriptions  as  this  that  make  me  re- 
gard in  admiration  this  ancient  Puritan.  Would 
that  I  had  the  power  of  his  pen  !  Fashion-plates, 
forsooth  !  The  Journal  of  the  Modes  !  — pray,  what 
need  have  we  of  any  pictures  or  any  mantua- 
maker's  words  when  we  can  have  such  a  description 
as  this.  Why  !  the  man  had  a  perfect  genius  for 
millinery  !  Had  he  lived  three  centuries  later,  we 
might  have  had  Master  Stubbes  in  full  control 
(openly  or  secretly,  according  to  his  environment)  of 
some  dress-making  or  tailoring  establishment  pour 
les  dames. 

The  lining  of  these  cloaks  was  often  very  gay  in 
color  and  costly ;  "  standing  in  as  much  as  the 
outside."  We  find  a  son  of  Governor  Winthrop 
writing  in  1606  :  — 

"  I  desire  you  to  bring  me  a  very  good  camlet  cloake 
lyned  with  what  you  like  except  blew.  It  may  be  purple 
or  red  or  striped  with  those  or  other  colors  if  so  worn 
suitable  and  fashionable.  ...  I  would  make  a  hard  shift 
rather  than  not  have  the  cloak." 

Similar  cloaks  of  scarlet,  and  of  blue  lined  with 
scarlet,  formed  part  of  the  uniform  of  soldiers  for 


160  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

many  years  and  for  many  nations.  They  were  cer- 
tainly the  wear  of  thrifty  comfortable  English  gentle- 
men. Did  not  John  Gilpin  wear  one  on  his  famous 
ride  ? 

"  There  was  all  that  he  might  be 
Equipped  from  head  to  toe, 
His  long  red  cloak  well-brushed  and  neat 
He  manfully  did  throw." 

Scarlet  was  a  most  popular  color  for  all  articles  of 
dress  in  the  early  years  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
Like  the  good  woman  in  the  Book  of  Proverbs,  both 
English  and  American  housewife  "  clothed  her  house- 
hold in  scarlet."  Women  as  well  as  men  wore  these 
scarlet  cloaks.  It  is  curious  to  learn  from  Mrs. 
Gummere  that  even  Quakers  wore  scarlet.  When 
Margaret  Fell  married  George  Fox,  greatest  of 
Quakers,  he  bought  her  a  scarlet  mantle.  And  in 
1678  he  sent  her  scarlet  cloth  for  another  mantle. 
There  was  good  reason  in  the  wear  of  scarlet ;  it  both 
was  warm  and  looked  warm  ;  and  the  color  was  a 
lasting  one.  It  did  not  fade  like  many  of  the  home- 
made dyes. 

A  very  interesting  study  is  that  of  color  in  wear- 
ing apparel.  Beginning  with  the  few  crude  dyes  of 
mediaeval  days,  we  could  trace  the  history  of  dyeing, 
and  the  use  and  invention  of  new  colors  and  tints. 
The  names  of  these  colors  are  delightful ;  the  older 
quaint  titles  seem  wonderfully  significant.  We  read 
of  such  tints  as  billymot,  phillymurt,  or  philomot 
(feuille-mort),  murry,  blemmish,  gridolin  (gris-de-lin 
or  flax  blossom),  puce  colour,  foulding  colour, 
Kendal  green,  Lincoln  green,  treen-colour,  watchet 


Judge  Stoughton. 


Cloaks  and  their  Cousins  261 

blue,  barry,  milly,  tuly,  stammel  red,  Bristol  red, 
zaffer-blue,  which  was  either  sapphire-blue  or  zaffre- 
blue,  and  a  score  of  fanciful  names  whose  signifi- 
cation and  identification  were  lost  with  the  death 
of  the  century.  Historical  events  were  commemo- 
rated in  new  hues;  we  have  the  political,  diplomatic, 
and  military  history  of  various  countries  hinted  to 
us.  Great  discoveries  and  inventions  give  names 
to  colors.  The  materials  and  methods  of  dyeing, 
especially  domestic  dyes,  are  most  interesting.  An 
allied  topic  is  the  significance  of  colors,  the  limi- 
tation of  their  use.  For  instance,  the  study  of 
blue  would  fill  a  chapter.  The  dress  of  'prentices 
and  serving-men  in  Elizabeth's  day  was  always  blue  ; 
blue  cloaks  in  winter,  blue  coats  in  summer.  Blue 
was  not  precisely  a  livery  ;  it  was  their  color,  the 
badge  of  their  condition  in  life,  as  black  is  now  a 
parson's.  Different  articles  of  dress  clung  to  cer- 
tain colors.  Green  stockings  had  their  time  and 
season  of  clothing  the  sturdy  legs  of  English  dames 
as  inevitably  as  green  stalks  filled  the  fields.  Think 
of  the  years  of  domination  of  the  green  apron  ;  of 
the  black  hood  —  it  is  curious  indeed. 

In  such  exhaustive  books  upon  special  topics  as 
the  History  of  the  Twelve  Great  Livery  Companies  of 
London  we  find  wonderfully  interesting  and  signifi- 
cant proof  of  the  power  of  color ;  also  in  many 
the  restrictive  sumptuary  laws  of  the  Crown. 

It  would  appear  that  this  long,  scarlet  cloak  never 
was  out  of  wear  for  men  and  women  until  the  nine- 
teenth century.  It  was,  at  times,  not  the  height  of  the 
fashion,  but  still  was  worn.     Various  ancient  citizens 


162  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

of  Boston,  of  Salem,  are  recalled  through  letter  or 
traditions  as  clinging  long  to  this  comfortable  cloak. 
Samuel  Adams  carried  a  scarlet  cloak  with  him  when 
he  went  to  Washington. 

I  shall  tell  in  a  later  chapter  of  my  own  great- 
great-grandmother's  wear  of  a  scarlet  cloak  until  the 
opening  years  of  the  nineteenth  century.  During 
and  after  the  Revolution  these  cloaks  remained  in 
high  favor  for  women.  French  officers,  writing  home 
to  France  glowing  accounts  of  the  fair  Americans, 
noted  often  that  the  ladies  wore  scarlet  cloaks,  and 
Madame  Riedesel  asserted  that  all  gentlewomen  in 
Canada  never  left  the  house  save  in  a  scarlet  silk  or 
cloth  cloak. 

"  A  woman's  long  scarlet  cloak,  almost  new  with  a 
double  cape,"  had  been  one  of  the  articles  feloniously 
taken  from  the  house  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  printer, 
in  Philadelphia,  in  1750.  Debby  Franklin's  dress,  if 
we  can  judge  from  what  was  stolen,  was  a  gay  revel 
of  color.  Among  the  articles  was  one  gown  having 
a  pattern  of  "  large  red  roses  and  other  large  yellow 
flowers  with  blue  in  some  of  the  flowers  with  many 
green  leaves." 

In  the  Life  of  Jonathan  Trumbull  we  read  that 
when  a  collection  was  taken  in  the  Lebanon  church 
for  the  benefit  of  the  soldiers  of  the  Continental 
army,  when  money,  jewels,  clothing,  and  food  were 
gathered  in  a  great  heap  near  the  pulpit,  Madam 
Faith  Trumbull  rose  up,  threw  from  her  shoulders 
her  splendid  scarlet  cloth  cloak,  a  gift  from  Count 
Rochambeau,  advanced  to  the  altar  and  laid  the 
cloak  with  other  offerings  of  patriotism  and  generos- 


Cloaks  and  their  Cousins 


263 


ity.     It  was  used,  we  are  told,  to  trim  the  uniforms 
of  the  Continental  officers  and  soldiers. 

One  of  the  first  entries  in  regard  to  dress  made 
by  Philip  Fithian  in  1773,  when  he  went  to  Virginia 
as  a  school-teacher,  was  that 
"  almost  every  Lady  wears 
a  Red  Cloak ;  and  when 
they  ride  out  they  tye 
a  Red  Handkerchief  over 
their  Head  &  Face ;  so 
when  I  first  came  to  Vir- 
ginia, I  was  distrest  when- 
ever I  saw  a  Lady,  for  I 
thought  she  had  the  Tooth- 
Ach  !  "  When  the  young 
tutor  left  his  charge  a  year 
later,  he  wrote  a  long  letter 
of  introduction, instruction, 
and  advice  to  his  successor  ; 
and  so  much  impression  had 
this  riding-dress  still  upon 
him  that  he  recounted  at 
length  the  "  Masked  La- 
dies," as  he  calls  them,  ex- 
plaining that  the  whole  neck 
and  face  was  covered,  save 
a  narrow  slit  for  the  eyes, 
as  if  they  had  "  the  Mumps  or  Tooth-Ach."  It  is 
possible  that  the  insect  torments  encountered  by  the 
fair  riders  may  have  been  the  reason  for  this  cloak- 
ing and  masking.  Not  only  mosquitoes  and  flies 
and  fleas  were  abundant,  but   Fithian   tells   of  the 


Woman's  Cloak.     From 
Hogarth. 


264  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

irritating  illness  and  high  fever  of  the  fairest  of  his 
little  floek  from  being  bitten  with  ticks,  "  which  cover 
her  like  a  distinct  smallpox." 

In  seventeenth-century  inventories  an  occasional 
item  is  a  rocket.  I  think  no  better  description  of 
a  rocket  can  be  given  than  that  of  Celia  Fiennes  :  — 

"  You  meete  all  sorts  of  countrywomen  wrapped  up  in 
the  mantles  called  West  Country  Rockets,  a  large  mantle 
doubled  together,  of  a  sort  of  serge,  some  are  linsey- 
woolsey  and  a  deep  fringe  or  fag  at  the  lower  end  ;  these 
hang  down,  some  to  their  feet,  some  only  just  below  the 
waist ;  in  the  summer  they  are  all  in  white  garments  of 
this  sort,  in  the  winter  they  are  in  red  ones." 

This  would  seem  much  like  a  blanket  shawl,  but 
the  word  was  also  applied  to  the  scarlet  round  cloak. 

Another  much-used  name  and  cloaklike  garment 
was  the  roquelaure.  A  very  good  contemporary 
definition  may  be  copied  from  A  Treatise  on  the 
Modes,  17 1 5  ;  it  says  it  is  "a  short  abridgement  or 
compendium  of  a  coat  which  is  dedicated  to  the 
Duke  of  Roquelaure."  It  was  simply  a  shorter 
cloak  than  had  been  worn,  and  it  was  hoodless  ;  for 
the  great  curled  wigs  with  heavy  locks  well  over  the 
shoulders  made  hoods  superfluous,  and  even  impos- 
sible, for  men's  wear.  It  was  very  speedily  taken 
into  favor  by  women ;  and  soon  the  advertisements 
of  lost  articles  show  that  it  was  worn  by  women  uni- 
versally as  by  men.  In  the  Boston  News  Letter,  in 
1730,  a  citizen  advertises  that  he  has  lost  his  "  Blue 
Cloak  or  Roculo  with  brass  buttons."  This  was  the 
first  of  an  ingenious  series  of  misspellings  which  pro- 


Cloaks  and  their  Cousins  265 

duced  at  times  a  word  almost  unrelated  to  the  original 
French  word.  Rocklow,  rockolet,  roquelo,  rochelo, 
roquello,  and  even  rotkello  have  I  found.  Ashton 
says  that  scarlet  cloth  was  the  favorite  fabric  for 
roquelaures  in  England  ;  and  he  deems  the  scarlet 
roclows  and  rocliers  with  gold  loops  and  buttons 
"  exceeding  magnifical."  I  note  in  the  American 
advertisements  that  the  lost  roquelaures  are  of  very 
bright  colors ;  some  were  of  silk,  some  of  camlet ; 
generally  they  are  simply  c  cloth.'  Many  of  the 
American  roquelaures  had  double  capes.  I  think 
those  handsome,  gay  cloaks  must  have  given  a  very 
bright,  cheerful  aspect  to  the  town  streets  of  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

Sir  William  Pepperell,  who  was  ever  a  little  shaky 
in  his  spelling,  but  possibly  no  more  so  than  his 
neighbors,  sent  in  1737  from  Piscataqua  to  one 
Hooper  in  England  for  "A  Handsom  Rockolet 
for  my  daughter  of  about  15  yrs.  old,  or  what  is  ye 
Most  Newest  Fashion  for  one  of  her  age  to  ware  at 
meeting  in  ye  Wintr  Season." 

The  capuchin  was  a  hooded  cloak  named  from 
the  hooded  garment  worn  by  the  Capuchin  monks. 
The  date  1752  given  by  Fairholt  as  an  early  date 
of  its  wear  is  far  wrong.  Fielding  used  the  word 
in  Tom  Jones  in  1749;  other  English  publications, 
in  1709  ;  and  I  find  it  in  the  Letters  of  Madame  de 
Sevigne  as  early  as  1686.  The  cardinal,  worn  at 
the  same  date,  was  originally  of  scarlet  cloth,  and  I 
find  was  generally  of  some  wool  stuff*.  At  one  time 
I  felt  sure  that  cardinal  was  always  the  name  for  the 
woollen  cloak,  and  capuchin  of  the  silken  one  ;  but 


i66 


Two  Centuries  of  Co 


stume 


now  I  am  a  bit  uncertain  whether  this  is  a  rule. 
Judging  from  references  in  literature  and  advertise- 
ments, the  capuchin  was  a  richer  garment  than  the 
cardinal.  Capuchins  were  frequently  trimmed  liber- 
ally with  lace,  ribbons, 
and  robings ;  were  made 
of  silk  with  gauze  ruf- 
fles, or  of  figured  vel- 
vet. One  is  here  shown 
which  is  taken  from  one 
of  Hogarth's  prints. 

This  notice  is  from 
the  Boston  Evening  Post 
of  January  13,1772:  — 

"  Taken  from  Concert 
Hall  on  Thursday  Even- 
ing a  handsom  Crimson 
Satin  Capuchin  trimmed 
with  a  rich  white  Blond 
Lace  with  a  narrow  Blond 
Lace  on  the  upper  edge 
Lined  with  White  Sars- 
net." 

In     1752     capuchins 

A  Capuchin.     From  Hogarth.  ^  cardinals  wer£  much 

worn,  especially  purple  ones.  The  Connoisseur  says 
all  colors  were  neglected  for  purple.  "In  purple 
we  glowed  from  hat  to  shoe.  In  such  request  were 
ribbons  and  silks  of  that  famous  color  that  neither 
milliner  mercer  nor  dyer  could  meet  the  demand." 
The  names  "cardinal"  and  "capuchin"  had  been 


Cloaks  and  their  Cousins  267 

derived  from  monkish  wear,  and  the  cape,  called  a 
pelerine,  had  an  allied  derivation;  it  is  said  to  be 
derived  from  pelerin —  meaning  a  pilgrim.  It  was 
a  small  cape  with  longer  ends  hanging  in  front ; 
and  was  invented  as  a  light,  easily  adjustable  cov- 
ering for  the  ladies'  necks,  which  had  been  left  so 
widely  and  coldly  bare  by  the  low-cut  French  bod- 
ices. It  is  said  that  the  garment  was  invented  in 
France  in  167 1.  I  do  not  find  the  word  in  use  in 
America  till  1730.  Then  mantua-makers  advertised 
that  they  would  make  them.  Various  materials  were 
used,  from  soft  silk  and  thin  cloth  to  rich  velvet ; 
but  silk  pelerines  were  more  common. 

In  1743,  in  the  Boston  News  Letter,  Henrietta 
Maria  East  advertised  that  "Ladies  may  have  their 
Pellerines  made"  at  her  mantua-making  shop.  In 
1749  "pellerines"  were  advertised  for  sale  in  the 
Boston  Gazette  and  a  black  velvet  "pellerine"  was 
lost. 

In  the  quotation  heading  this  chapter,  manteel, 
pelerine,  and  neckatee  precede  the  capuchin ;  but 
in  fact  the  capuchin  is  as  old  as  the  pelerine.  Be- 
yond the  fact  that  all  mantua-makers  made  necka- 
tees,  and  that  they  were  a  small  cape,  this  garment 
cannot  be  described.  It  required  much  less  stuff 
than  either  capuchin  or  cardinal.  The  "  manteel  " 
was,  of  course,  as  old  as  the  cloak.  Elijah  "  took 
his  mantle  and  wrapped  it  together,  and  smote  the 
waters."  In  the  Middle  Ages  the  mantle  was  a 
great  piece  of  cloth  in  any  cloaklike  shape,  of 
;which  the  upper  corners  were  fastened  at  the  neck. 
Often  one  of  the  front  edges  was  thrown  over  one 


268 


Two   Centuries   of  Costume 


shoulder.  In  the  varied  forms  of  spelling  and  wear- 
ing, as  man  to,  manteau,  mantoon,  mantelet,  and  man- 
tilla the  foundation  is  the  same.     We  have  noted 

the  richness  and 
elegance  of  Madam 
Symonds's  mantua. 
We  could  not  for- 
get the  word  and  its 
signification  while 
we  have  so  impor- 
tant a  use  of  it  in 
mantua-maker. 

Dauphiness  was 
the  name  of  a  cer- 
tain style  of  man- 
tle, which  was  most 
popular  about 
1750.  Harriot 
Paine  had  "  Dauph- 
iness Mantles  "  for 
sale  in  Boston  in 
1755.  A  rude  draw- 
ing in  an  old  letter 
indicates  that  the 
"Dauphiness"  had 
a  deep  point  at  the 
back,  and  was  cut 
up  high  at  the  arm- 
Lady  Caroline  Montagu.  hole>    It  was  ofthin 

silk,  and  was  trimmed  all  around  the  lower  edge  with 
a  deep,  full  frill  of  the  silk,  which  at  the  arm-hole 
fell  over  the  arm  like  a  short  sleeve. 


Cloaks  and  their  Cousins  269 

Many  were  the  names  of  those  pretty  little  cloaks 
and  capes  which  were  worn  with  the  sacque-shaped 
gowns.  The  duchess  was  one ;  we  revived  the 
name  for  a  similar  mantle  in  1870.  The  pelisse 
was  in  France  the  cloak  with  arm-holes,  shown,  on 
page  268,  upon  one  of  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds's  engag- 
ing children.  The  pelisse  in  America  sometimes 
had  sleeves,  I  am  sure ;  and  was  hardly  a  cloak. 
It  is  difficult  to  classify  some  forms  which  seem 
almost  jackets.  A  general  distinction  may  be  made 
not  to  include  sleeved  garments  with  the  cloaks; 
but  several  of  the  manteaus  had  loose,  large, 
flowing  sleeves,  and  some  like  Madam  Symonds's 
had  detached  sleeves.  It  is  also  difficult  to  know 
whether  some  of  the  negligees  were  cloaks  or  sacque- 
like  gowns.  And  there  is  the  other  extreme ;  some 
of  the  smaller,  circular  neck-coverings  like  the  van- 
dykes  are  not  cloaks.  They  are  scarcely  capes ; 
they  are  merely  collars  ;  but  there  are  still  others 
which  are  a  bit  bigger  and  are  certainly  capes.  And 
are  there  not  also  capes,  like  the  neckatee,  which  may 
be  termed  cloaks  ?  Material,  too,  is  bewildering ;  a 
light  gauze  thing  of  ribbons  and  furbelows  like  the 
Unella  is  not  really  a  cloak,  yet  it  takes  a  cloaklike 
form.  There  are  no  cut  and  dried  rules  as  to 
size,  form,  or  weight  of  these  cloaks,  capes,  collars, 
and  hoods,  so  I  have  formed  my  own  classes  and 
assignments. 


CHAPTER   X 

THE    DRESS    OF    OLD-TIME    CHILDREN 

"  Rise  up  to  thy  Elders,  put  off '  t by  Hat,  make  a  Leg." 
—  "Janua  Linguarum,"  Comenius,  1664. 

"  Little  ones  are  taught  to  be  proud  of  their  clothes  before 
they  can  put  them  on" 

—  "  Essay  on  Human  Understanding,"  Locke,  1687. 

"  When  thou  thyself  a  watery,  pulpy,  slobbery  Freshman 
and  newcomer  on  this  Planet,  sattest  mewling  in  thy  nurse's 
arms ;  sucking  thy  coral,  and  looking  forth  into  the  world  in  the 
blankest  manner,  what  hadst  thou  been  without  thy  blankets  and 
bibs  and  other  nameless  hulls  ?  " 

—  "Sartor  Resartus,"  Thomas  Carlyle,  1836. 


CHAPTER   X 

THE    DRESS    OF    OLD-TIME    CHILDREN 

HEN  we  reflect  that  in  any  community 
the  number  of  "the  younger  sort"  is 
far  larger  than  of  grown  folk,  when  we 
know,  too,  what  large  families  our  an- 
cestors had,  in  all  the  colonies,  we  must 
deem  any  picture  of  social  life,  any  his- 
tory of  costume,  incomplete  unless  the  dress  of  chil- 
dren is  shown.  French  and  English  books  upon 
costume  are  curiously  silent  regarding  such  dress. 
It  might  be  alleged  as  a  reason  for  this  singular 
silence  that  the  dress  of  young  children  was  for  cen- 
turies precisely  that  of  their  elders,  and  needed  no 
specification.  But  infants'  dress  certainly  was  widely 
different,  and  full  of  historic  interest,  as  well  as  quaint 
prettiness  ;  and  there  were  certain  details  of  the  dress 
of  older  children  that  were  most  curious  and  were 
wholly  unlike  the  contemporary  garb  of  their  elders  ; 
sometimes  these  details  were  survivals  of  ancient 
modes  for  grown  folk,  sometimes  their  name  was  a 
survival  while  their  form  had  changed. 

For  the  dress  of  children  of  the  early  years  of 
colonial  life  —  the  seventeenth  century — I  have  an 
unusual  group  of  five  portraits.  One  is  the  little 
Padishal  child,  shown  with  her  mother  in  the  frontis- 

VOL.  I— T  273 


274  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

piece,  one  is  Robert  Gihbes  (shown  facing  page  316). 
The  third  child  is  said  to  be  John  Quincy —  his 
picture  is  opposite  this  page.  The  two  portraits  of 
Margaret  and  Henry  Gibbes  are  owned  in  Virginia; 
but  are  too  dimly  photographed  for  reproduction. 
The  portrait  of  Robert  Gibbes  is  owned  by  inher- 
itance by  Miss  Sarah  B.  Hager,  of  Kendal  Green, 
Massachusetts.  It  is  well  preserved,  having  hung 
for  over  a  hundred  years  on  the  same  wall  in  the  old 
house.  He  was  four  years  old  when  this  portrait  was 
painted.  It  is  marked  1670.  John  Quincy's  por- 
trait is  marked  also  plainly  as  one  and  a  half  years 
old,  and  with  a  date  which  is  a  bit  dimmed  ;  it  is 
either  1670  or  1690.  If  it  is  1690,  the  picture  can 
be  that  of  John  Ouincy,  though  he  would  scarcely 
be  as  large  as  is  the  portrayed  figure.  If  the  date 
is  1670,  it  cannot  be  John  Ouincy,  for  he  was  born 
in  1689.  The  picture  has  the  same  checker-board 
floor  as  the  three  other  Gibbes  portraits,  four  rows 
of  squares  wide ;  and  the  child's  toes  are  set  at  the 
same  row  as  are  the  toes  of  the  shoes  in  the  picture 
of  Robert  Gibbes. 

The  portraits  of  Henry  and  Margaret  Gibbes  are 
also  marked  plainly  1670.  There  was  a  fourth 
Gibbes  child,  who  would  have  been  just  the  age  of 
the  subject  ot  the  Quincy  portrait ;  and  it  is  natural 
that  there  should  be  a  suspicion  that  this  fourth  por- 
trait is  of  the  fourth  Gibbes  child,  not  of  John 
Quincy. 

Margaret  Gibbes  was  born  in  1663.  Henry 
Gibbes  was  born  in  1667.  He  became  a  Congre- 
gational minister.     His  daughter  married  Nathaniel 


John  Quincy. 


The  Dress  of  Old-time  Children  275 

Appleton,  and  through  Nathaniel,  John,  Dr.  John 
S.,  and  John,  the  portrait,  with  that  of  Margaret, 
came  to  the  present  owner,  General  John  W.  S. 
Appleton,  of  Charlestown,  West  Virginia. 

The  dress  of  these  five  children  is  of  the  same 
rich  materials  that  would  be  worn  by  their  mothers. 
The  Padishal  child  wears  black  velvet  like  her 
mother's  gown  ;  but  her  frock  is  brightened  with 
scarlet  points  of  color.  The  linings  of  the  velvet 
hanging  sleeves,  the  ribbon  knots  of  the  white  virago- 
sleeve,  the  shoe-tip,  the  curious  cap-tassel,  are  of 
bright  scarlet.  We  have  noted  the  dominance  of 
scarlet  in  old  English  costumes.  It  was  evidently 
the  only  color  favored  for  children.  The  lace  cap, 
the  rich  lace  stomacher,  the  lace-edged  apron,  all  are 
of  Flemish  lace.  Margaret  Gibbes  wears  a  frock  of 
similar  shape,  and  equally  rich  and  dark  in  color ;  it 
is  a  heavy  brocade  of  blue  and  red,  with  a  bit  of 
yellow.  Her  fine  apron,  stomacher,  and  full  sleeves 
are  rich  in  needlework.  Robert  Gibbes's  "  coat,"  as 
a  boy's  dress  at  that  age  then  was  called,  is  a  striking 
costume.  The  inmost  sleeves  are  of  white  lawn, 
over  them  are  sleeves  made  of  strips  of  galloon  of 
a  pattern  in  yellow,  white,  scarlet,  and  black,  with  a 
rolled  cuff  of  red  velvet.  There  is  a  similar  roll 
around  the  hem  of  the  coat.  Still  further  sleeves 
are  hanging  sleeves  of  velvet  trimmed  with  the 
galloon. 

It  will  be  noted  that  his  hanging  sleeve  is  cut 
square  and  trimmed  squarely  across  the  end.  It  is 
similar  to  the  sleeves  worn  at  the  same  time  by  citi- 
zens of  London  in  their  formal  "  liveryman's  "  dress, 


2j6  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

which  had  bands  like  pockets,  that  sometimes  really 
were  pockets. 

His  plain,  white,  hemstitched  band  would  indicate 
that  he  was  a  boy,  did  not  the  swing  of  his  petticoats 
plainly  serve  to  show  it,  as  do  also  his  brothers' 
"  coats."  That  child  knew  well  what  it  was  to  tread 
and  trip  on  those  hated  petticoats  as  he  went  upstairs. 
I  know  how  he  begged  for  breeches.  The  apron  of 
John  Quincy  varies  slightly  in  shape  from  that  of 
the  other  boy,  but  the  general  dress  is  like,  save  his 
pretty,  gay,  scarlet  hood,  worn  over  a  white  lace  cap. 
One  unique  detail  of  these  Gibbes  portraits,  and  the 
Quincy  portrait,  is  the  shoes.  In  all  four,  the  shoes 
are  of  buff  leather,  with  absolutely  square  toes,  with 
a  thick,  scarlet  sole  to  which  the  buff-leather  upper 
seems  tacked  with  a  row  either  of  long,  thick,  white 
stitches  or  of  heavy  metal-headed  nails  ;  these  white 
dots  are  very  ornamental.  One  pair  of  the  shoes 
has  great  scarlet  roses  on  the  instep.  The  square 
toe  was  distinctly  a  Cavalier  fashion.  It  is  in  Miss 
Campion's  portrait,  facing  this  page,  and  in  the  print 
of  the  Prince  of  Orange  on  page  282,  and  is  found  in 
many  portraits  of  the  day.  But  these  American 
shoes  are  in  the  minor  details  entirely  unlike  any 
English  shoes  I  have  seen  in  any  collection  else- 
where, and  are  most  interesting.  They  were  doubt- 
less English  in  make. 

The  portrait  of  John  Quincy  resembles  much  in 
its  dress  that  of  Oliver  Cromwell  when  two  years 
old,  the  picture  now  at  Chequers  Court.  Crom- 
well's linen  collar  is  rounded,  and  a  curious  orna- 
ment is  worn  in  front,  as  a  little  girl  would  wear  a 


Miss  Campion,    1667. 


The  Dress  of  Old-time  Children  277 

locket.  The  whole  throat  and  a  little  of  the  upper 
neck  is  bare.  Dark  hair,  slightly  curled,  comes  out 
from  the  close  cap  in  front  of  the  ears.  This  pic- 
ture of  Cromwell  distinctly  resembles  his  mother's 
portrait. 

The  quaint  tassel  or  rosette  or  feather  on  the  cap 
of  the  Padishal  child  was  a  fashion  of  the  day.  It  is 
seen  in  many  Dutch  portraits  of  children.  In  a  curi- 
ous old  satirical  print  of  Oliver  Cromwell  preaching 
are  the  figures  of  two  little  children  drawn  standing 
by  their  mother's  side.  One  child's  back  is  turned 
for  our  sight,  and  shows  us  what  might  well  be  the 
back  of  the  gown  of  the  Padishal  child.  The  cap 
has  the  same  ornament  on  the  crown,  and  the  hang- 
ing sleeves  —  of  similar  form  —  have,  at  intervals  of 
a  few  inches  apart  from  shoulder  to  heel,  an  outside 
embellishment  of  knots  of  ribbon.  There  is  also  a 
band  or  strip  of  embroidery  or  passementerie  up  the 
back  of  the  gown  from  skirt-hem  to  lace  collar,  with 
a  row  of  buttons  on  the  strip.  This  proves  that 
the  dress  was  fastened  in  the  back,  as  the  stiff,  un- 
broken, white  stomacher  also  indicates.  The  other 
child  is  evidently  a  boy.  His  gown  is  long  and  fur- 
edged.  His  cap  is  round  like  a  Scotch  bonnet,  and 
has  also  a  tuft  or  rosette  at  the  crown.  On  either 
side  hang  long  strings  or  ribbon  bands  reaching  from 
the  cap  edge  to  the  knee. 

These  portraits  of  these  little  American  children 
display  nothing  of  that  God-given  attribute  which 
we  call  genius,  but  they  do  possess  a  certain  welcome 
trait,  which  is  truthfulness;  a  hard  attention  to  de- 
tail, which  confers  on  them  a  quality  of  exactness  of 


278  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

likeness  of  which  we  are  very  sensible.  We  have 
for  comparison  a  series  of  portraits  of  the  same  dates, 
but  of  English  children,  the  children  of  the  royal  and 
court  families.  I  give  on  page  126  a  part  of  the 
portrait  group  of  the  family  of  the  Duke  of  Bucking- 
ham ;  namely,  the  Duchess  of  Buckingham  and  her 
two  children,  an  infant  son  and  a  daughter,  Mary. 
She  was  a  wonderful  child,  known  in  the  court  as 
"  Pretty  Moll,"  having  the  beauty  of  her  father,  the 
"  handsomest-bodied  "  man  in  court,  his  vivacity, 
his  vigor,  and  his  love  of  dancing,  all  of  which 
made  him  the  prime  favorite  both  of  James  and 
his  son,  Charles. 

A  letter  exists  written  by  the  duchess  to  her  hus- 
band while  he  was  gone  to  Spain  with  his  thirty  suits 
of  richly  embroidered  garments  of  which  I  have 
written  in  my  first  chapter.  The  duchess  writes  of 
"  Pretty  Moll,"  who  was  not  a  year  old  :  — 

"  She  is  very  well,  I  thank  God  ;  and  when  she  is  set  to 
her  feet  and  held  by  her  sleeves  she  will  not  go  softly  but 
stamp,  and  set  one  foot  before  another  very  fast,  and  I 
think  she  will  run  before  she  can  go.  She  loves  dancing 
extremely  ;  and  when  the  Saraband  is  played,  she  will  get 
her  thumb  and  finger  together  offering  to  snap ;  and  then 
when  "Tom  Duff"  is  sung,  she  will  shake  her  apron  ;  and 
when  she  hears  the  tune  of  the  clapping  dance  my  Lady 
Frances  Herbert  taught  the  Prince,  she  will  clap  both  her 
hands  together,  and  on  her  breast,  and  she  can  tell  the 
tunes  as  well  as  any  of  us  can  ;  and  as  they  change  tunes 
she  will  change  her  dancing.  I  would  you  were  here  but 
to  see  her,  for  you  would  take  much  delight  in  her  now  she 
is  so  full  of  pretty  play  and  tricks.  Everybody  says  she 
grows  each  day   more  like  you." 


The  Dress  of  Old-time  Children  279 

Can  you  not  see  the  engaging  little  creature,  clap- 
ping her  hands  and  trying  to  step  out  in  a  dance  ? 
No  imaginary  description  could  equal  in  charm  this 
bit  of  real  life,  this  word-picture  painted  in  bright 
and  living  colors  by  a  mother's  love.  I  give  another 
merry  picture  of  her  childhood  and  widowhood  in  a 
later  chapter.  Many  portraits  of  "  Pretty  Moll" 
were  painted  by  Van 
Dyck,  more  than  of 
any  woman  in  England 
save  the  queen.  One 
shows  her  in  the  few 
months  that  she  was 
the  child-wife  of  the 
eldest  son  of  the  Earl 
of  Pembroke.  She  is  in 
the  centre  of  the  great 
family  group.  She  was 
married  thrice  ;  her  fa- 
vorite choice  of  charac-  Infant's  Cap. 

ter  in  which  to  be  painted  was  Saint  Agnes,  who 
died  rather  than  be  married  at  all. 

Both  mother  and  child  in  this  picture  wear  a  lace 
cap  of  unusual  shape,  rather  broader  where  turned 
over  at  the  ear  than  at  the  top.  It  is  seen  on  a  few 
other  portraits  of  that  date,  and  seems  to  have  come 
to  England  with  the  queen  of  James  I.  It  disap- 
peared before  the  graceful  modes  of  hair-dressing 
introduced  by  Queen  Henrietta  Maria. 

The  genius  of  Van  Dyck  has  preserved  for  us  a 
wonderful  portraiture  of  children  of  this  period,  the 
children   of  King  Charles   I.      The    earliest   group 


2  8o  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

shows  the  king  and  queen  with  two  children;  one 
a  baby  in  arms  with  long  clothes  and  close  cap  — 
this  might  have  been  painted  yesterday.  The  little 
prince  standing  at  his  father's  knee  is  in  a  dark  green 
frock,  much  like  John  Ouincy's,  and  apparently  no 
richer.  A  painting  at  Windsor  shows  king  and 
queen  with  the  two  princes,  Charles  and  James; 
another,  also  at  Windsor,  gives  the  mother  with  the 
two  sons.  One  at  Turin  gives  the  two  princes  with 
their  sister.  At  Windsor,  and  in  replicant  Berlin,  is 
the  famous  masterpiece  with  the  five  children,  dated 

1637. 

This  exquisite  group  shows  Charles,  the  Prince  of 
Wales  (aged  seven),  with  his  arm  on  the  head  of  a 
great  dog ;  he  is  in  the  full  garb  of  a  grown  man,  a 
Cavalier.  His  suit  is  red  satin  ;  the  shoes  are  white, 
with  red  roses.  Mary,  demure  as  in  all  her  por- 
traits, is  aged  six  ;  she  wears  virago-sleeves  made 
like  those  of  Margaret  Gibbes,  with  hanging  sleeves 
over  them,  a  lace  stomacher,  and  cap,  with  tufts  of 
scarlet,  and  hair  curled  lightly  on  the  forehead,  and 
pulled  out  at  the  side  in  ringlets,  like  that  of  her 
mother,  Henrietta  Maria.  The  Duke  of  York, 
aged  two,  wears  a  red  dress  spotted  with  yellow,  with 
sleeves  precisely  like  those  of  Robert  Gibbes  ;  white 
lace-edged  apron,  stomacher,  and  cap  ;  his  hair  is  in 
curls.  The  Princess  Elizabeth  was  aged  about  two  ; 
she  is  in  blue.  Her  cap  is  of  wrought  and  tucked 
lawn,  and  she  wears  either  a  pearl  ear-ring  or  a  pearl 
pendant  at  the  corner  of  the  cap  just  at  the  ear,  and 
a  string  of  pearls  around  her  neck.  She  has  a  gentle, 
serious  face,  one  with  a  premonitory  tinge  of  sad- 


Eleanor  Foster.      1755. 


The  Dress  of  Old-time  Children  281 

ness.  She  was  the  favorite  daughter  of  the  king, 
and  wrote  the  inexpressibly  touching  account  of  his 
last  days  in  prison.  She  was  but  thirteen,  and  he 
said  to  her  the  day  before  his  execution,  "  Sweet- 
heart, you  will  forget  all  this."  "  Not  while  I 
live,"  she  answered,  with  many  tears,  and  promised 
to  write  it  down.  She  lived  but  a  short  time,  for 
she  was  broken-hearted ;  she  was  found  dead,  with 
her  head  lying  on  the  religious  book  she  had  been 
reading — in  which  attitude  she  is  carved  on  her 
tomb.  The  baby  is  Princess  Anne,  a  fat  little  thing 
not  a  year  old  ;  she  is  naked,  save  for  a  close  cap  and 
a  little  drapery.  She  died  when  three  and  a  half 
years  old ;  died  with  these  words  on  her  lips, 
"  Lighten  Thou  mine  eyes,  O  Lord,  that  I  sleep 
not  the  sleep  of  Death."  It  was  not  Puritan  chil- 
dren only  at  that  time  who  were  filled  with  deep 
religious  thought,  and  gave  expression  to  that 
thought  even  in  infancy  ;  children  of  the  Church 
of  England  and  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
were  all  widely  imbued  with  religious  feeling,  and 
Biblical  words  were  the  familiar  speech  of  the  day, 
of  both  young  and  old.  It  rouses  in  me  strange 
emotions  when  I  gaze  at  this  portrait  and  remember 
all  that  came  into  the  lives  of  these  royal  children. 
They  had  been  happier  had  they  been  born,  like  the 
little  Gibbes  children,  in  America,  and  of  untitled 
parents. 

At  Amsterdam  may  be  seen  the  portrait  of 
Princess  Mary  painted  with  her  cousin,  William 
of  Orange,  who  became  her  child-husband.  She 
had  the  happiest  life  of  any  of  the  five  —  if  she  ever 


282 


Two  Centuries  of  Costume 


could  be  happy  after  her  father's  tragic  death.  In 
this  later  portrait  she  is  a  little  older  and  sadder  and 
stiffer.      Her  waist  is  more  pinched,  her  shoulders 


THE   FORTRAtCTVRE  OF  THE  MO^T   ILLV^TRrOVi'    U 
Noble    Will i a. m  of  Na.fsa.iJ    Prince  of  Orange, etc     born  j.617 

*$<    married  *}    Ma.y    ]  64.  J  .  »" 


narrower,  her  face  more  demure.  His  likeness  is 
here  given.  The  only  marked  difference  in  the 
dress  of  these  children  from  the  dress  of  the  Gibbes 
children  is  in  the  lace ;  the  royal  family  wear  laces 


The  Dress  of  Old-time  Children  283 

with  deeply  pointed  edges,  the  point  known  as  a 
Vandyke.  The  American  children  wear  straight- 
edged  laces,  as  was  the  general  manner  of  laces  of 
that  day.  An  old  print  of  the  Duke  of  York  when 
about  seven  years  old  is  given  (facing  page  168). 
He  carries  in  his  hand  a  quaint  racket. 

The  costume  worn  by  these  children  is  like  that 
of  plebeian  English  children  of  the  same  date.  A 
manuscript  drawing  of  a  child  of  the  people  in  the 
reign  of  Charles  I  shows  a  precisely  similar  dress, 
save  that  the  child  is  in  leading-strings  held  by  the 
mother ;  and  in  the  belt  to  which  the  leading-strings 
are  attached  is  thrust  a  "  muckinder  "  or  handker- 
chief. 

These  leading-strings  are  seldom  used  now,  but 
they  were  for  centuries  a  factor  in  a  child's  progress. 
They  were  a  favorite  gift  to  children  ;  and  might  be  a 
simple  flat  strip  of  strong  stuff,  or  might  be  richly 
worked  like  the  leading-strings  which  Mary,  Queen 
of  Scots  embroidered  for  her  little  baby,  James. 
These  are  three  bands  of  Spanish  pink  satin  ribbon, 
each  about  four  or  five  feet  long  and  over  an  inch 
wide.  The  three  are  sewed  with  minute  over-and- 
over  stitches  into  a  flat  band  about  four  inches  wide, 
and  are  embroidered  with  initials,  emblems  of  the 
crown,  a  verse  of  a  psalm,  and  a  charming  flower 
and  grape  design.  The  gold  has  tarnished  into 
brown,  and  the  flower  colors  are  fled ;  but  it  is  still 
a  beautiful  piece  of  work,  speaking  with  no  uncertain 
voice  of  a  tender,  loving  mother  and  a  womanly 
queen.  There  were  crewel-worked  leading-strings 
in  America.     One  is  prettily  lined  with   strips   of 


2S4  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

handsome  brocade  that  had  been  the  mother's  wed 
ding  petticoat;  it  is  not  an  ill  rival  of  the  princely 
leading-strings. 

Another  little  English  girl,  who  was  not  a  princess, 
but  who  lived  in  the  years  when  ran  and  played  our 
little  American  children,  was  Miss  Campion,  who 
"  minded  her  horn-book  "  —  minded  it  so  well  that 
she  has  been  duly  honored  as  the  only  English  child 
ever  painted  with  horn-book  in  hand.  Her  petti- 
coat and  stomacher,  her  apron,  and  cap  and  hanging 
sleeves  and  square-toed  shoes  are  just  like  Margaret 
Gibbes's  —  bought  in  the  same  London  shops,  very 
likely. 

Not  only  did  all  these  little  English  and  American 
children  dress  alike,  but  so  did  French  children,  and 
so  did  Spanish  children  —  only  little  Spanish  girls 
had  to  wear  hoops.  Hoops  were  invented  in  Spain  ; 
and  proud  was  the  Spanish  queen  of  them. 

Velasquez,  contemporary  with  Van  Dyck,  painted 
the  Infanta  Maria  Theresa ;  the  portrait  is  now  in 
the  Prado  at  Madrid.  She  carries  a  handkerchief 
as  big  as  a  tablecloth ;  but  above  her  enormous 
hoop  appears  not  only  the  familiar  virago-sleeve, 
but  the  straight  whisk  or  collar,  just  like  that  of 
English  children  and  dames.  This  child  and  the 
Princess  Marguerite,  by  Velasquez,  have  the  hair 
parted  on  one  side  with  the  top  lock  turned  aside 
and  tied  with  a  knot  of  ribbon  precisely  as  we  tie 
our  little  daughters'  hair  to-day ;  and  as  the  bride 
of  Charles  II  wore  her  hair  when  he  married  her. 
French  children  had  not  assumed  hoops.  I  have 
an  old  French  portrait  before  me  of  a  little  demoi- 


The  Dress  of  Old-time  Children  285 

selle,  aged  five,  in  a  scarlet  cloth  gown  with  edgings 
of  a  narrow  gray  gimp  or  silver  lace.  All  the  sleeves, 
the  slashes,  the  long,  hanging  sleeves  are  thus  edged. 
She  wears  a  long,  narrow,  white  lawn  apron,  and  her 
stiff  bodice  has  a  stomacher  of  lawn.  There  is  a 
straight  white  collar  tied  with  tiny  bows  in  front  and 
white  cuffs  ;  a  scarlet  close  cap  edged  with  silver  lace 
completes  an  exquisite  costume,  which  is  in  shape 
like  that  of  Margaret  Gibbes.  The  garments  of  all 
these  children,  royal  and  subject,  are  too  long,  of 
course,  for  comfort  in  walking ;  too  stiff,  likewise, 
for  comfort  in  wearing ;  too  richly  laced  to  be  suit- 
able for  everyday  wear  ;  too  costly,  save  for  folk  of 
wealth  ;  yet  nevertheless  so  quaint,  so  becoming,  so 
handsome,  so  rich,  that  we  reluctantly  turn  away 
from  them. 

The  dress  of  all  young  children  in  families  of 
estate  was  cumbersome  to  a  degree.  There  exists 
to-day  a  warrant  for  the  purchase  of  clothing  of 
Mary  Tudor,  sister  of  Henry  VIII,  when  she  was 
a  sportive,  wilful,  naughty  little  child  of  four.  She 
wore  such  unwieldy  and  ugly  guise  as  this  :  kirtles 
of  tawny  damask  and  black  satin  ;  gowns  of  green 
and  crimson  striped  velvet  edged  with  purple  tinsel, 
which  must  have  been  hideous.  All  were  lined  with 
heavy  black  buckram.  Indeed,  the  inner  portions, 
the  linings  of  old-time  garments,  even  of  royalty, 
were  far  from  elegant.  I  have  seen  garments  worn 
by  grown  princesses  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
whereof  the  rich  brocade  bodies  were  lined  with 
common,  heavy  fabric,  usually  a  stiff  linen ;  and 
the  sewing  was  done  with  thread  as  coarse  as  shoe- 


286  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

thread,  often  homespun.  This,  too,  when  the  sleeve 
and  neck-ruffles  would  be  of  needlework  so  exquisite 
that  it  could  not  be  rivalled  in  execution  to-day. 

Many  of  the  older  portraits  of  children  show 
hanging  sleeves.  The  rich  claret  velvet  dresses  of 
the  Van  Cortlandt  twins,  aged  four,  had  hanging 
sleeves.  This  dress  is  given  in  my  book,  Child  Life 
in  Colonial  Days,  as  is  that  of  Katherine  Ten  Broeck, 
another  child  of  Dutch  birth  living  in  New  York, 
who  also  wore  heavy  hanging  sleeves. 

The  use  of  the  word  hanging  sleeves  in  com- 
mon speech  and  in  literature  is  most  interesting.  It 
had  a  figurative  meaning;  it  symbolized  youth  and 
innocence.  This  meaning  was  acquired,  of  course, 
from  the  wear  for  centuries  of  hanging  sleeves  by 
little  children,  both  boys  and  girls.  It  had  a  second, 
a  derivative  signification,  being  constantly  employed 
as  a  figure  of  speech  to  indicate  second  childhood  ;  it 
was  used  with  a  wistful  tender  meaning  as  an  emblem 
of  the  helplessness  of  feeble  old  age.  The  follow- 
ing example  shows  such  an  employment  of  the  term. 

In  1720,  Judge  Samuel  Sewall,  of  Boston,  then 
about  seventy-five  years  of  age,  wrote  to  another 
old  gentleman,  whose  widowed  sister  he  desired  to 
marry,  in  these  words  :  — 

"  I  remember  when  I  was  going  from  school  at  New- 
bury to  have  sometime  met  your  sisters  Martha  and  Mary 
in  Hanging  Sleeves,  coming  home  from  their  school  in 
Chandlers  Lane,  and  have  had  the  pleasure  of  speaking  to 
them.  And  I  could  find  it  in  my  heart  now  to  speak 
to  Mrs.  Martha  again,  now  I  myself  am  reduc'd  to  Hang- 
ins  Sleeves." 


The  Dress  of  Old-time  Children  287 

William  Byrd,  of  Westover,  in  Virginia,  in  one 
of  his  engaging  and  sprightly  letters  written  in 
1732,  pictures  the  time  of  the  patriarchs  when  "a 
man  was  reckoned  at  Years  of  Discretion  at  100; 
Boys  went  into  Breeches  at  about  40 ;  Girles  con- 
tinued in  Hanging  Sleeves  till  50,  and  plaid  with 
their   Babys  till  Threescore." 

When  Benjamin  Franklin  was  seven  years  old,  he 
wrote  a  poem  which  was  sent  to  his  uncle,  a  bright 
old  Quaker.  This  uncle  responded  in  clever  lines 
which  begin  thus  :  — 

"  'Tis  time  for  me  to  throw  aside  my  pen 
When  Hanging-Sleeves  read,  write  and  rhyme  like  men. 
This  forward  Spring  foretells  a  plenteous  crop 
For  if  the  bud  bear  grain,  what  will  the  top  ?  ' ' 

A  curious  use  of  the  long  hanging  sleeve  was  as 
a  pocket ;  that  is,  it  would  seem  curious  to  us  were 
it  not  for  our  acquaintance  with  the  capacity  of  the 
sleeves  of  our  unwelcome  friend,  Ah  Sing.  The 
pocketing  sleeve  of  the  time  of  Henry  III  still 
exists  in  the  heraldic  charge  known  as  the  manche, 
borne  by  the  Hastings  and  Norton  family.  This 
is  also  called  maunch,  emanche,  and  mancheron. 
The  word  "  manchette,"  an  ornamented  cuff,  retains 
the  meaning  of  the  word,  as  does  manacle ;  all  are 
from  manus. 

Hanging  sleeves  had  a  time  of  short  popularity 
for  grown  folk  while  Anne  Boleyn  was  queen  of 
England ;  for  the  little  finger  of  her  left  hand  had 
a  double  tip,  and  the  long,  graceful  sleeves  effectually 
concealed  the  deformity. 


288  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

In  my  book  entitled  Child  Life  in  Colonial  Days  I 
have  given  over  thirty  portraits  of  American  children. 
These  show  the  changes  of  fashions,  the  wear  of 
children  at  various  periods  and  ages.  Childish  dress 
ever  reflected  the  dress  of  their  elders,  and  often 
closely  imitated  it.  Two  very  charming  costumes 
are  worn  by  two  little  children  of  the  province  of 
South  Carolina.  The  little  girl  is  but  two  years 
old.  She  is  Ellinor  Cordes,  and  was  painted  about 
1740.  She  is  a  lovely  little  child  of  French 
features  and  French  daintiness  of  dress,  albeit  a 
bright  yellow  brocaded  satin  would  seem  rather 
gorgeous  attire  for  a  girl  of  her  years.  The  boy  is 
her  kinsman,  Daniel  Ravenel,  and  was  then  about 
five  years  old.  He  wore  what  might  be  termed  a 
frock  with  spreading  petticoats,  which  touched  the 
ground  ;  there  is  a  decided  boyishness  in  the  tight- 
fitting,  trim  waistcoat  with  its  silver  buttons  and  lace, 
and  the  befrogged  coat  with  broad  cuffs  and  wrist 
ruffles,  and  turned-over  revers,  and  narrow  linen 
inner  collar.  It  is  an  exceptionally  pleasing  boy's 
dress,  for  a  little  boy. 

A  somewhat  similar  but  more  feminine  coat  is 
worn  by  Thomas  Aston  Coffin  ;  it  opens  in  front 
over  a  white  satin  petticoat,  and  it  has  a  low-cut 
neck  and  sleeves  shortened  to  the  elbow,  and  worn 
over  full  white  undersleeves.  Other  portraits  by 
Copley  show  the  same  dress  of  white  satin,  which 
boys  wore  till  six  years  of  age. 

Copley's  portrait  of  his  own  children  is  given  on 
a  later  page.  This  family  group  always  startles  all 
who  have  seen  it  only  in  photographs ;  for  its  colors 


Mrs.  Theodore  Sedgwick  and  Daughter. 


The  Dress  of  Old-time  Children 


289 


are  so  unexpected,  so  frankly  crude  and  vivid.  The 
individuals  are  all  charming.  The  oldest  child,  the 
daughter,  Elizabeth,  stands  in  the  foreground  in  a 
delightful  white  frock  of  striped  gauze.  This  is 
worn  over  a  pink  slip,  and  the  pink  tints  show  in 
the  thinner  folds  of  whiteness  ;  a  fine  piece  of  texture- 
painting.  The  gauze  sash  is  tied  in  a  vast  knot,  and 
lies  out  in  a  train  ;  this 
is  a  more  vivid  pink, 
inclining  to  the  tint  of 
the  old-rose  damask  fur- 
niture -  covering.  She 
wears  a  pretty  little  net 
and  muslin  cap  with  a 
cap-pin  like  a  tiny  rose. 
This  single  figure  is  not 
excelled,  I  think,  by  any 
child's  portrait  in  for- 
eign galleries,  nor  is  it 
often  equalled.  Nor 
can  the  exquisite  ex- 
pression of  childish  love 
and  confidence  seen  on 
the  face  of  the  boy, 
John  Singleton  Copley,  Junior,  who  later  became 
Lord  Lyndhurst,  find  a  rival  in  painting.  It  is  an 
unspeakably  touching  portrait  to  all  who  have  seen 
upturned  close  to  their  own  eyes  the  trusting  and 
loving  face  of  a  beautiful  son  as  he  clung  with  strong 
boyish  arms  and  affection  to  his  mother's  neck. 

This     little    American    boy,   who    became    Lord 
Chancellor  of  England,  wears  a  nankeen  suit  with 


Infant  Child  ot  Francis  Hopkinson, 
"the  Signer."  Painted  by  Fran- 
cis Hopkinson. 


2ijo  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

a  lilac-tinted  sash.  It  is  his  beaver  hat  with  gold 
hatband  and  blue  feather  that  lies  on  the  ground  at 
the  feet  of  the  grandfather,  Richard  Clarke.  The 
baby,  held  by  the  grandfather,  wears  a  coral  and 
bells  on  a  lilac  sash-ribbon;  such  a  coral  as  we  see 
in  many  portraits  of  infants.  Another  child  in  white- 
embroidered  robe  and  dark  yellow  sash  completes 
this  beautiful  family  picture.  Its  great  fault  to  me 
is  the  blue  of  Mrs.  Copley's  gown,  which  is  as  vivid 
as  a  peacock's  breast.  This  painting  is  deemed  Cop- 
ley's masterpiece  ;  but  an  equal  interest  is  that  it  is 
such  an  absolute  and  open  expression  of  Copley's 
lovable  character  and  upright  life.  In  it  we  can 
read  his  affectionate  nature,  his  love  of  his  sweet 
wife,  his  happy  home-relations,  and  his  pride  in  his 
beautiful  children. 

There  is  ample  proof,  not  only  in  the  inventories 
which  chance  to  be  preserved,  but  in  portraits  of 
the  times,  that  children's  dress  in  the  eighteenth 
century  was  often  costly.  Of  course  the  children 
of  wealthy  parents  only  would  have  their  portraits 
painted;  but  their  dress  was  as  rich  as  the  dress 
of  the  children  of  the  nobility  in  England  at  the 
same  time.  You  can  see  this  in  the  colored  repro- 
duction of  the  portraits  of  Hon.  James  Bowdoin 
and  his  sister,  Augusta,  afterwards  Lady  Temple. 
That  they  were  good  likenesses  is  proved  by  the 
fact  that  the  faces  are  strongly  like  those  of  the 
same  persons  in  more  mature  years.  You  find 
little  Augusta  changed  but  slightly  in  matronhood 
in  the  fine  pastel  by  Copley.  In  this  portrait 
of  the  two    Bowdoin   children,  the   entire   dress   is 


The  Dress  of  Old-time  Children 


29 


given.  Seldom  are  the  shoes  shown.  These  are 
interesting,  for  the  boy's  square-toed  black  shoes 
with  buckles  are  wholly  unlike  his  sister's  blue 
morocco  slippers  with  turned-up  peaks  and  gilt 
ornaments  from  toe  to  instep,  making  a  foot-gear 
much  like  certain  Turk- 
ish slippers  seen  to-day. 
Her  hair  has  the  bedi- 
zenment  of  beads  and 
feathers,  which  were 
worn  by  young  girls  for 
as  many  years  as  their 
mothers  wore  the  same. 
The  young  lad's  dress  is 
precisely  like  his  father's. 
There  is  much  charm  in 
these  straight  little  fig- 
ures. They  have  the  aris- 
tocratic bearing  which 
is  a  family  trait  of  all 
of  that  kin.  I  should 
not  deem  Lady  Temple 
ever  a  beauty,  though 
she  was  called  so  by 
Manasseh  Cutler,  a  minister  who  completely  yielded 
to  her  charms  when  she  was  a  grandmother  and 
forty-four.  This  portrait  of  brother  and  sister  is, 
I  believe,  by  Blackburn.  The  dress  is  similar  and 
the  date  the  same  as  the  portrait  of  the  Misses 
Royall  (one  of  whom  became  Lady  Pepperell), 
which  is  by  Blackburn. 

The  portrait  of  a  charming  little  American  child 


Mary  Seton, 


292  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

is  shown  on  page  291.  This  child,  in  feature,  figure, 
and  attitude,  and  even  in  the  companionship  of  the 
kitten,  is  a  curious  replica  of  a  famous  English  por- 
trait of"  Miss  Trimmer." 

I  have  written  at  length  in  Chapter  IV  of  a  grand- 
mother in  the  Hall  family  and  of  the  Hall  family 
connection.  Let  me  tell  of  another  grandmother, 
Madam  Lydia  Coleman,  the  daughter  of  the  old 
Indian  fighter,  Captain  Joshua  Scottow.  She,  like 
Madam  Symonds  and  Madam  Stoddard,  had  had 
several  husbands  —  Colonel  Benjamin  Gibbs,  At- 
torney-General Anthony  Checkley,  and  William 
Coleman.  The  Hall  children  were  her  grand- 
children ;  and  came  to  Boston  for  schooling  at  one 
time.  Many  letters  exist  of  Hon.  Hugh  Hall  to 
and  from  his  grandmother,  Madam  Coleman.  She 
writes  thus  :  — 

"  As  for  Richard  since  I  told  him  I  would  write  to  his 
Father  he  is  more  orderly,  &  he  is  very  hungry,  and  has 
grown  so  much  yt  all  his  Clothes  is  too  Little  for  him.  He 
loves  his  book  and  his  play  too.  I  hired  him  to  get  a 
Chapter  of  ye  Proverbs  &  give  him  a  penny  every  Sabbath 
day,  &  promised  him  5  shillings  when  he  can  say  them  all 
by  heart.  I  would  do  my  duty  by  his  soul  as  well  as  his 
body.  .  .  .  He  has  grown  a  good  boy  and  minds  his 
School  and  Lattin  and  Dancing.  He  is  a  brisk  Child  & 
grows  very  Cute  and  wont  wear  his  new  silk  coat  yt  was 
made  for  him.  He  wont  wear  it  every  day  so  yt  I  don't 
know  what  to  do  with  it.  It  wont  make  him  a  jackitt.  I 
would  have  him  a  good  husbander  but  he  is  but  a  child. 
For  shoes,  gloves,  hankers  &  stockins,  they  ask  very  deare, 
8   shillings  for  a  paire  &  Richard  takes  no  care  of  them. 


The  Dress  of  Old-time  Children  293 

Richard  wears  out  nigh  12  paire  of  shoes  a  year.  He 
brought  12  hankers  with  him  and  they  have  all  been  lost 
long  ago  ;  and  I  have  bought  him  3  or  4  more  at  a  time. 
His  way  is  to  tie  knottys  at  one  end  &  beat  ye  Boys  with 
them  and  then  to  lose  them  &  he  cares  not  a  bit  what  I 
will  say  to  him." 

Madam  Coleman,  after  this  handful,  was  given 
charge  of  his  sister  Sarah.  When  Missy  arrived  from 
the  Barbadoes,  she  was  eight  years  old.  She  brought 
with  her  a  maid.  The  grandmother  wrote  back 
cheerfully  to  the  parents  that  the  child  was  well  and 
brisk,  as  indeed  she  was.  All  the  very  young  gentle- 
men and  young  ladies  of  Boston  Brahmin  blood  paid 
her  visits,  and  she  gave  a  feast  at  a  child's  dancing- 
party  with  the  sweetmeats  left  over  from  her  sea- 
store.  Her  stay  in  her  grandmother's  household 
was  surprisingly  brief.  She  left  unbidden  with  her 
maid,  and  went  to  a  Mr.  Binning's  to  board;  she 
sent  home  word  to  the  Barbadoes  that  her  grand- 
mother made  her  drink  water  with  her  meals.  Her 
brother  wrote  to  Madam  Coleman:  — 

"  We  were  all  persuaded  of  your  tender  and  hearty  affec- 
tion to  my  Sister  when  we  recommended  her  to  your  pa- 
rental care.  We  are  sorry  to  hear  of  her  Independence  in 
removing  from  under  the  Benign  Influences  of  your  Wing 
&  am  surprised  she  dare  do  it  without  our  leave  or  con- 
sent or  that  Mr.  Binning  receive  her  at  his  house  before 
he  knew  how  we  were  affected  to  it.  We  shall  now  desire 
Mr.  Binning  to  resign  her  with  her  waiting  maid  to  you  and 
in  our  Letter  to  him  have  strictly  ordered  her  to  Return 
to  your  House." 


294  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

But  no  brother  could  control  this  spirited  young 
damsel.  Three  months  later  a  letter  from  Madam 
Coleman  read  thus:  — 

"Sally  wont  go  to  school  nor  to  church  and  wants  a  nue 
muff  and  a  great  many  other  things  she  don't  need.  I  tell 
her  fine  things  are  cheaper  in  Barbadoes.  She  is  well  and 
brisk,  says  her  Brother  has  nothing  to  do  with  her  as  long 
as  her  father  is  alive." 

Hugh  Hall  wrote  in  return,  saying  his  daughter 
ought  to  have  one  room  to  sleep  in,  and  her  maid 
another,  that  it  was  not  befitting  children  of  their 
station  to  drink  water,  they  should  have  wine  and 
beer.  We  cannot  wonder  that  they  dressed  like 
their  elders  since  they  were  treated  like  their  elders 
in  other  respects. 

The  dress  of  very  young  girls  was  often  extraordi- 
narily rich.  We  find  this  order  sent  to  London  in 
1739,  for  finery  for  Mary  Cabell,  daughter  of  Dr. 
William  Cabell  of  Virginia,  when  she  was  but  thir- 
teen years  old  :  — 

"  1  Prayer   Book  (almost    every  such  inventory  had  this 
item). 
1  Red  Silk  Petticoat. 
1  Very  good  broad  Silver  laced  hat  and  hat-band. 

1  Pair  Stays  1 7  inches  round  the  waist, 

2  Pair  fine  Shoes. 

12  Pair  fine  Stockings. 
1  Hoop  Petticoat. 
1  Pair  Ear  rings. 
1  Pair  Clasps. 

3  Pair  Silver  Buttons  set  with  Stones. 


The  Dress  of  Old-time  Children  295 

I  Suit  of  Headclothes. 

4  Fine  Handkerchiefs  and  Ruffles  suitable. 

A  Very  handsome  Knot  and  Girdle. 

A  Fine  Cloak  and  Short  Apron." 

I  never  read  such  a  list  as  this  without  picturing 
the  delight  of  little  Mary  Cabell  when  she  opened 
the  box  containing  all  these  pretty  garments. 

The  order  given  by  Colonel  John  Lewis  for  his 
young  ward  of  eleven  years  old  —  another  Virginia 
child  —  reads  thus  :  — 

"A  cap,  ruffle,  and  tucker,  the  lace  5^.  per  yard. 

1  pair  White  Stays. 

8  pair  White  kid  gloves. 

2  pair  Colour'd  kid  gloves. 

2  pair  worsted  hose. 

3  pair  thread  hose. 

1  pair  silk  shoes  laced. 

1  pair  morocco  shoes. 

4  pair  plain  Spanish  shoes. 

2  pair  calf  shoes, 
1  Mask. 

1  Fan. 

1  Necklace. 

1  Girdle  and  Buckle. 

1  Piece  fashionable  Calico. 

4  yards  Ribbon  for  Knots. 

1  Hoop  Coat. 

1  Hat. 

il  Yard  of  Cambric. 

A  Mantua  and  Coat  of  Slite  Lustring." 

Orders  for  purchases  were  regularly  despatched  to 
a  London  agent    by  George  Washington  after  his 


296  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

marriage.  In  1761  he  orders  a  full  list  of  garments 
for  both  his  stepchildren.  "  Miss  Custis  "  was  only 
six  years  old.      These  are  some  of  the  items  :  — 

"  1  Coat  made  of  Fashionable  Silk. 
A  Fashionable  Cap  or  fillet  with  Bib  apron. 
Ruffles  and  Tuckers,  to  be  laced. 
4  Fashionable  Dresses  made  of  Long  Lawn. 
2  Fine  Cambrick  Frocks. 
A  Satin  Capuchin,  hat,  and  neckatees. 
A  Persian  Quilted  Coat. 

1  p.  Pack  Thread  Stays. 
4  p.  Callimanco  Shoes. 
6  p.  Leather  Shoes. 

2  p.  Satin  Shoes  with  flat  ties. 
6  p.  Fine  Cotton  Stockings. 

4  p.  White  Worsted  Stockings. 

12  p.  Mitts. 

6  p.  White  Kid  Gloves. 

1  p.  Silver  Shoe  Buckles. 

I  p.  Neat  Sleeve  Buttons. 

6  Handsome  Egrettes  Different  Sorts. 

6  Yards  Ribbon  for  Egrettes. 

12  Yards  Coarse  Green  Callimanco." 

A  Virginia  gentleman,  Colonel  William  Fleming, 
kept  for  several  years  a  close  account  of  the  money 
he  spent  for  his  little  daughters,  who  were  young 
misses  of  ten  and  eleven  in  the  year  1787.  The 
most  expensive  single  items  are  bonnets,  each  at 
^4  10s. ;  an  umbrella,  -Qi  Ss.  Cloth  cloaks  and  sad- 
dles and  bridles  for  riding  were  costly  items.  Tam- 
boured muslin  was  at  that  time  i8j.  a  yard  ;  durant, 
3 j.   6d.\    lutestring,   lis. ;    calico,    6s.    %d.      Scarlet 


The  Dress  of  Old-time  Children  297 

cloaks  for  each  girl  cost  £1  14J.  each.  Other  dress 
materials  besides  those  named  above  were  cam- 
bric, linen,  cotton,  osnaburgs,  negro  cotton,  book- 
muslin,  ermin,  nankeen,  persian,  Turkey  cotton, 
shalloon,  and  swanskin.  There  were  many  yards  of 
taste  and  ribbon,  black  lace,  and  edgings,  and  gauze 
—  gauze  —  gauze.  A  curious  item  several  times 
appearing  is  a  "  paper  bonnet,"  not  bonnet-paper, 
which  latter  was  a  constant  purchase  on  women's 
lists.  There  were  pen-knives,  "  scanes  of  silk," 
crooked  combs,  morocco  shoes,  "  nitting  pins,"  con- 
stant "  sticks  of  pomatum,"  fans,  "  chanes,"  a  shawl, 
a  tamboured  coat,  gloves,  stockings,  trunks,  bands 
and  clasps,  tooth-brushes,  silk  gloves,  necklaces, 
"fingered  gloves,"  silk  stockings,  handkerchiefs, 
china  teacups  and  saucers  and  silver  spoons.  All 
these  show  a  very  generous  outfit. 

In  the  year  1770  a  delightful,  engaging  little  child 
came  to  Boston  from  Nova  Scotia  to  live  for  a  time 
with  her  aunt,  a  Boston  gentlewoman,  and  to  attend 
Boston  schools.  For  the  amusement  of  her  parents 
so  far  away,  and  for  practice  in  penmanship,  she  kept 
during  the  years  1771  and  part  of  1772  a  diary. 
She  was  but  ten  years  old  when  she  began,  but  her 
intelligence  and  originality  make  this  diary  a  valua- 
ble record  of  domestic  life  in  Boston  at  that  date. 
I  have  had  the  pleasure  of  publishing  her  diary  with 
notes  under  the  title,  Diary  of  Anna  Green  Winslow, 
a  Boston  School  Girl,  in  the  Tear  177 1.  I  lived  so 
much  with  her  while  transcribing  her  words  that  she 
seems  almost  like  a  child  of  my  own.  Like  other 
unusual  children  she  died  young  —  when  but  nine- 


298  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

teen.  She  was  not  so  gifted  and  wonderful  and  rare 
a  creature  as  that  star  among  children,  Marjorie 
Fleming,  yet  she  was  in  many  ways  equally  interest- 
ing; she  was  a  frank,  homely  little  flower  of  New 
England  life  destined  never  to  grow  old  or  weary,  or 
tired  or  sad,  but  to  live  forever  in  eternal,  happy 
childhood,  through  the  magic  living  words  in  the 
hundred  pages  of   her  time-stained  diary. 

She  was  of  what  Dr.  Holmes  called  Boston  Brah- 
min blood,  was  related  to  many  of  the  wealthiest 
and  best  families  of  Boston  and  vicinity,  and  knew 
the  best  society.  Dress  was  to  her  a  matter  of  dis- 
tinct importance,  and  her  clothes  were  carefully  fash- 
ionable. Her  distress  over  wearing  "  an  old  red 
Domino "  was  genuine.  We  have  in  her  words 
many  references  to  her  garments,  and  we  find  her 
dress  very  handsome.  This  is  what  she  wore  at  a 
child's  party  :  — 

"  I  was  dressed  in  my  yellow  coat,  black  bib  &  apron, 
black  feathers  on  my  head,  my  past  comb  &  all  my  past 
garnet,  marquesett  &  jet  pins,  together  with  my  silver  plume 
—  my  loket,  rings,  black  collar  round  my  neck,  black  mitts 
&  yards  of  blue  ribbin  (black  &  blue  is  high  tast),  striped 
tucker  &  ruffels  (not  my  best)  &  my  silk  shoes  completed 
my  dress." 

A  few  days  later  she  writes  :  — 

"  I  wore  my  black  bib  &  apron,  my  pompedore  shoes, 
the  cap  my  Aunt  Storer  since  presented  me  with  (blue  rib- 
bins  on  it)  &  a  very  handsome  locket  in  the  shape  of  a 
hart  she  gave  me,  the  past  Pin  my  Hon'd  Papa  presented 
me  with  in  my  cap.      My  new  cloak  &  bonnet,  my  pompe- 


The  Dress  of  Old-time  Children  299 

dore  gloves,  &c.  And  I  would  tell  you  that  for  the  first 
time  they  all  on  lik'd  my  dress  very  much.  My  cloak  &  bon- 
nett  are  really  very  handsome  &  so  they  had  need  be.  For 
they  cost  an  amasing  sight  of  money,  not  quite  ^45,  tho' 
Aunt  Suky  said  that  she  suppos'd  Aunt  Deming  would  be 
frighted  out  of  her  Wits  at  the  money  it  cost.  I  have  got 
one  covering  by  the  cost  that  is  genteel  &  I  like  it  much 
myself." 

As  this  was  in  the  times  of  depreciated  values, 
^45  was  not  so  large  a  sum  to  expend  for  a  girl's 
outdoor  garments  as  at  first  sight  appears. 

She  gives  a  very  exact  account  of  her  successions 
of  head-gear,  some  being  borrowed  finery.  She 
apparently  managed  to  rise  entirely  above  the  hated 
"  black  hatt "  and  red  domino,  which  she  patroniz- 
ingly said  would  be  "  Decent  for  Common  Occa- 
tions."     She  writes  :  — 

"  Last  Thursday  I  purchased  with  my  aunt  Deming's 
leave  a  very  beautiful  white  feather  hat,  that  is  the  outside, 
which  is  a  bit  of  white  hollowed  with  the  feathers  sew'd 
on  in  a  most  curious  manner ;  white  and  unsully'd  as  the 
falling  snow.  As  I  am,  as  we  say,  a  Daughter  of  Liberty 
I  chuse  to  were  as  much  of  our  own  manufactory  as  poci- 
ble.  .  .  .  My  Aunt  says  if  I  behave  myself  very  well 
indeed,  not  else,  she  will  give  me  a  garland  of  flowers  to 
orniment  it,  tho'  she  has  layd  aside  the  biziness  of  flower- 
making." 

The  dress  described  and  portrayed  of  these  chil- 
dren all  seems  very  mature;  but  children  were  quickly 
grown  up  in  colonial  days.  Cotton  Mather  wrote, 
"  New  English  youth  are  very  sharp  and  early  ripe 
in  their  capacities."     They  married  early ;   though 


3°° 


Two  Centuries  of  Costume 


none  of  the  "child-marriages"  of  England  disfigure 
the  pages  of  our  history.  Sturdy  Endicott  would 
not  permit  the  marriage  of  his  ward,  Rebecca 
Cooper,  an  "  inheritrice,"  —  though  Governor  Win- 
throp  wished  her  for  his  nephew,  —  because  the  girl 
was  but  fifteen.  I  am  surprised  at  this,  for  mar- 
riages at  fifteen  were 
common  enough.  My 
far-away  grandmother, 
Mary  Burnet,  married 
William  Browne,  when 
she  was  fourteen ;  an- 
other grandmother, 
Mary  Philips,  married 
her  cousin  at  thirteen, 
and  there  is  every  evi- 
dence that  the  match 
was  arranged  with  little 
heed  of  the  girl's  wishes. 
It  was  the  happiest  of 
marriages.  Boys  be- 
came men  by  law  when 
sixteen.  Winthrop 
named  his  son  as  execu- 
tor of  his  will  when  the 
boy  was  fourteen  —  but  there  were  few  boys  like 
that  boy.  We  find  that  the  Virginia  tutor  who 
taught  in  the  Carter  family  just  previous  to  the  war 
of  the  Revolution  deemed  a  young  lady  of  thirteen 
no  longer  a  child. 

"  Miss  Betsy  Lee  is  about  thirteen,  a  tall,  slim,  genteel 
girl.      She  is  very  far  from   Miss   Hale's  taciturnity,  yet  is 


Miss  Lydia  Robinson,  aged  12  Years, 
Daughter  of  Colonel  James  Rob- 
inson. Marked  "  Corne  pinxt, 
Sept.  1805." 


The  Dress  of  Old-time  Children  301 

by  no  means  disagreeably  Forward.  She  dances  extremely 
well,  and  is  just  beginning  to  play  the  Spinet.  She  is 
dressed  in  a  neat  Shell  Callico  Gown,  has  very  light  Hair 
done  up  with  a  Feather,  and  her  whole  carriage  is  Inoffen- 
sive, Easy  and  Graceful." 

The  christening  of  an  infant  was  not  only  a  sacra- 
ment of  the  church,  and  thus  of  highest  importance, 
but  it  was  also  of  secular  note.  It  was  a  time  of 
great  rejoicing,  of  good  wishes,  of  gift-making.  In 
mediaeval  times,  the  child  was  arrayed  by  the  priest 
in  a  white  robe  which  had  been  anointed  with 
sacred  oil,  and  called  a  chrismale,  or  a  chrisom.  If 
the  child  died  within  a  month,  it  was  buried  in  this 
robe  and  called  a  chrisom-child.  The  robe  was  also 
called  a  christening  palm  or  pall.  When  the  cus- 
tom of  redressing  the  child  in  a  robe  at  the  altar 
had  passed  away,  the  christening  palm  still  was 
used  and  was  thrown  over  the  child  when  it  was 
brought  out  to  receive  visitors.  This  robe  was  also 
termed  a  bearing-cloth,  a  christening  sheet,  and  a 
cade-cloth. 

This  fine  coverlet  of  state,  what  we  would  now 
call  a  christening  blanket,  was  usually  made  of  silk ; 
often  it  was  richly  embroidered,  sometimes  with  a 
text  of  Scripture.  It  was  generally  lace-bordered, 
or  edged  with  a  narrow,  home-woven  silk  fringe. 
The  christening-blanket  of  Governor  Bradford  of 
the  Plymouth  Colony  still  is  owned  by  a  descendant ; 
it  is  whole  of  fabric  and  unfaded  of  dye.  It  is  rich 
crimson  silk,  soft  of  texture,  like  heavy  sarcenet  silk, 
and  is  powdered  at  regular  distances  about  six  inches 
apart  with  conventional  sprays  of  flowers,  embroid- 


3<32  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

ered  chiefly  in  pink  and  yellow,  in  minute  silk 
cross-stitch.  Another  beautiful  silk  christening 
blanket  was  quilted  in  an  intricate  flower  pattern  in 
almost  imperceptible  stitches.  Another  of  yellow 
satin  has  a  design  in  white  floss  that  gives  it  the 
appearance  of  being  trimmed  with  white  silk  lace. 
Best  of  all  was  to  embroider  the  cloth  with  designs 
and  initials  and  emblems  and  biblical  references.  A 
coat-of-arms  or  crest  was  very  elegant.  The  words, 
"  God  Bless  the  Babe,"  were  not  left  wholly  to  the 
pincushions  which  every  babe  had  given  him  or  her, 
but  appeared  on  the  christening  blanket.  A  curious 
design  shown  me  was  called  The  Tree  of  Knowledge. 
The  figure  of  a  child  in  cap,  apron,  bib,  and  hang- 
ing sleeves  stands  pointing  to  a  tree  upon  which 
grew  books  as  though  they  were  apples.  The  open 
pages  of  each  book-apple  is  printed  with  a  title,  as, 
The  New  England  Primer,  Lilly's  Grammar,  Jane- 
way  s  Holy  Children,  The  Prodigal  Daughter. 

An    inventory  of  the  christening  garments  of  a 
child  in  the  seventeenth  century  reads  thus :  — 

"I.    A  lined  white  figured  satin  cap. 

2.  A  lined  white  satin   cap  embroidered   in   sprays  with 
gold  coloured  silk. 

3.  A  white  satin  palm   embroidered   in   sprays  of  yellow 
silk  to  match.      This  is  44  inches  by  34  inches  in  size. 

4.  A   palm  of  rich  '  still  yellow  '  silk  lined  with   white 
satin.     This  is  54  inches  by  48  inches  in  size. 

5.  A  pair  of  deep  cuffs  of  white  satin,  lace  trimmed  and 
embroidered. 

6.  A  pair  of  linen  mittens  trimmed  with  narrow  lace, 
the  back  of  the  fingers  outlined  with  yellow  silk  figures." 


The   Dress  of  Old-time   Children 


303 


Knitted  Flaxen   Mittens. 


The  satin  cuffs  were  for  the  wear  of  the  older 
person  who  carried  the  child.  The  infant  was  placed 
upon  the  larger  palm  or  cloth,  and  the  smaller  one 
thrown  over  him,  over  his  petticoats.  The  inner 
cap  was  very  tight  to  the  head.  The  outer  was 
embroidered  ;  often  it  turned  back  in  a  band. 

There  was  a  significance  in  the  use  of  yellow ;  it 
is  the  altar  color  for  certain  church  festivals,  and 
was  proper  for  the  pledging  of  the  child. 

All  these  formalities  of  christening  in  the  Church 
of  England  were  not  abandoned  by  the  Separatists. 
New  England  children  were  just  as  carefully  chris- 
tened and  dressed  for  christening  as  any  child  in  the 
Church  of  England.  In  the  reign  of  James  I  tiny 
shirts  with  little  bands  or  sleeves  or  cuffs  wrought  in 


304  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

silk  or  in  coventry-blue  thread  were  added  to  the 
gift  of  spoons  from  the  sponsors.  I  have  one  of 
these  little  coventry-blue  embroidered  things  with 
quaint  little  sleeves;  too  faded,  I  regret,  to  reveal 
any  pattern  to  the  camera. 

The  christening  shirts  and  mittens  given  by  the 
sponsors  are  said  to  be  a  relic  of  the  ancient  custom 
of  presenting  white  clothes  to  the  neophytes  when 
converted  to  Christianity.  These  "  Christening 
Sets  "  are  preserved  in  many  families. 

Of  the  dress  of  infants  of  colonial  times  we  can 
judge  from  the  articles  of  clothing  which  have  been 
preserved  till  this  day.  These  are  of  course  the 
better  garments  worn  by  babies,  not  their  everyday 
dress ;  their  simpler  attire  has  not  survived,  but 
their  christening  robes,  their  finer  shirts  and  petti- 
coats and  caps  remain. 

Linen  formed  the  chilling  substructure  of  their 
dress,  thin  linen,  low-necked,  short-sleeved  shirts  ; 
and  linen  remained  the  underwear  of  infants  until 
tnirty  years  ago.  I  do  not  wonder  that  these  little 
linen  shirts  were  worn  for  centuries.  They  are  infi- 
nitely daintier  than  the  finest  silk  or  woollen  under- 
wear that  have  succeeded  them  ;  they  are  edged  with 
narrowest  thread  lace,  and  hemstitched  with  tiny  rows 
of  stitches  or  corded  with  tiny  cords,  and  sometimes 
embroidered  by  hand  in  minute  designs.  They  were 
worn  by  all  babies  from  the  time  of  James  I,  never 
varying  one  stitch  in  shape  ;  but  I  fear  this  pretty 
garment  of  which  our  infants  were  bereft  a  few  years 
ago  will  never  crowd  out  the  warm,  present-day  silk 
wear.     This  wholly  infantile  article  of  childish  dress 


Mrs.  Elizabeth  Lux  Russell  and  Daughter. 


The   Dress  of  Old-time  Children 


305 


had  tiny  little  revers  or  collarettes  or  laps  made  to 
turn  over  outside  the  robe  or  slip  like  a  minute  bib, 
and  these  laps  were  beautifully  oversewn  where  the 
corners  joined  the  shirt,  to  prevent  tearing  down  at 
this  seam.  These  tiny  shirts  were  the  dearest  little 
garments  ever  made  or  dreamed  of.  When  a  baby 
had  on  a  fresh,  corded  slip,  low  of  neck,  with 
short,  puffed  sleeve,  and  the  tiny  hemstitched  laps 
were  turned  down  outside  the  neck  of  the  slip,  and 
the  little  sleeves  were  caught  up  by  fine  strings  of 
gold-clasped  pink  coral,  the  baby's  dimpled  shoulders 
and  round  head  rose  up  out  of  the  little  shirt-laps 
like  some  darling  flower. 

I  have  seen  an  infant's  shirt  and  a  cap  embroidered 
on  the  laps  with  the  coat-of-arms  of  the  Lux  and 
Johnson  families  and  the  motto,  "  God  Bless  the 
Babe  ;  "  these  delicate  garments,  the  work  of  fairies, 
were  worn  in  infancy  by  the  Revolutionary  soldier, 
Governor  Johnson  of  Virginia. 

In  the  Essex  Institute  in  Salem,  Massachusetts, 
are  the  baptismal  shirt  and  mittens  of  the  Pilgrim 
father,  William  Bradford,  second  governor  of  the 
Plymouth  colony,  who  was  born  in  1590.  They 
are  shown  on  page  306.  All  are  of  firm,  close-woven, 
homespun  linen,  but  the  little  mittens  have  been  worn 
at  the  ends  by  the  active  friction  of  baby  hands,  and 
are  patched  with  red  and  yellow  figured  "chiney" 
or  calico.  A  similar  colored  material  frills  the  sleeves 
and  neck.  This  may  have  been  part  of  their  orna- 
mentation when  first  made,  but  it  looks  extraneous. 

The  sleeves  of  this  shirt  are  plaited  or  goffered  in 
a  way  that  seems  wholly  lost ;   this  is  what  I   have 


VOL.  I  —  X 


3°6 


Two   Centuries   of  Costui 


already  described  —  pinching.  I  have  seen  the  sleeve 
of  a  child's  dress  thus  pinched  which  had  been  worn 
by  a  little  girl  aged  three.  The  wrist-cuff  measured 
about  five  inches  around,  and  was  stoutly  corded. 
Upon  ripping  the  sleeve  apart,  it  was  found  that  the 
strip  of  fine  mull  which  was  thus  pinched  into  the 
sleeve  was   two   yards   in    length.     The  cuff  flared 


Christening  Shirt  and  Mitts  of  Governor  Bradford. 

slightly,  else  even  this  length  of  sheer  lawn  could 
not  have  been  confined  at  the  wrist.  In  the  so-called 
"  Museum,"  gloomily  scattered  around  the  famous 
old  South  Church  edifice  in  Boston,  are  fine  examples 
of  this  pinched  work. 

Many  of  the  finest  existing  specimens  of  old  gui- 
pure, Flanders,  and  needlepoint  laces  in  England  and 
America  are  preserved  on  the  ancient  shirts,  mitts, 
caps,  and  bearing-cloths  of  infants.      Often  there  is 


The  Dress  of  Old-time  Children  307 

a  little  padded  bib  of  guipure  lace  accompanied  with 
tiny  mittens  like  these. 

This  pair  was  wrought  and  worn  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  and  the  stitches  and  work  are  those  of  the 
Flanders  point 
laces.  I  have 
seen  tiny  mitts 
knitted  of  silk, 
of  fine  linen 
thread,  also 
made  of  linen, 
hem-stitched, 
or  worked  in 
drawn-work,  or 
embroidered, 
and  one  pair  of 

r     .    ,  Flanders  Lace  Mitts. 

mittens,  and  the 

cap.  that  matched  was  of  tatting-work  done  in  the 
finest  of  thread.  No  needlepoint  could  be  more 
beautiful.     Some  are  shown  on  page  303. 

Mitts  of  yellow  nankeen  or  silk,  made  with  long 
wrists  or  arms,  were  also  worn  by  babies,  and  must 
have  proved  specially  irritating  to  tiny  little  hands 
and  arms.  These  had  the  seams  sewed  over  and 
over  with  colored  silks  in  a  curiously  intricate  netted 
stitch. 

I  have  an  infant's  cap  with  two  squares  of  lace 
set  in  the  crown,  one  over  each  ear.  The  lace  is 
of  a  curious  design  ;  a  conventionalized  vase  or  urn 
on  a  standard.  I  recognize  it  as  the  lace  and  pattern 
known  as  "  pot-lace,"  made  for  centuries  at  Antwerp, 
and  worn  there  by  old  women  on  their  caps  with  a 


308  Two   Centuries  of  Costume 

devotion  to  a  single  pattern  that  is  unparalleled.  It 
was  the  "flower-pot"  symbol  of  the  Annunciation. 
The  earliest  representation  of  the  Angel  Gabriel  in 
the  Annunciation  showed  him  with  lilies  in  his  hand  ; 
then  these  lilies  were  set  in  a  vase.  In  years  the 
angel  has  disappeared  and  then  the  lilies,  and  the  lily- 
pot  only  remains.  It  is  a  whimsical  fancy  that  this 
symbol  of  Romanism  should  have  been  carefully 
transferred  to  adorn  the  pate  of  a  child  of  the  Puri- 
tans. The  place  of  the  medallion,  set  over  each  ear, 
is  so  unusual  that  I  think  it  must  have  had  some 
significance.  I  wonder  whether  they  were  ever  set 
thus  in  caps  of  heavy  silk  or  linen  to  let  the  child 
hear  more  readily,  as  he  certainly  would  through  the 
thin  lace  net. 

The  word  "  beguine "  meant  a  nun ;  and  thus 
derivatively  a  nun's  close  cap.  This  was  altered  in 
spelling  to  biggin,  and  for  a  time  a  nun's  plain  linen 
cap  was  thus  called.  By  Shakespere's  day  biggin 
had  become  wholly  a  term  for  a  child's  cap.  It  was 
a  plain  phrase  and  a  plain  cap  of  linen.  Shakespere 
calls  them  "  homely  biggens." 

I  have  seen  it  stated  that  the  biggin  was  a  night- 
cap. When  Oueen  Elizabeth  lost  her  mother, 
Anne  Boleyn,  she  was  but  three  years  old,  a  neg- 
lected little  creature.  A  lady  of  the  court  wrote 
that  the  child  had  "no  manner  of  linen,  nor  for- 
smocks,  nor  kerchiefs,  nor  rails,  nor  body-stitches, 
nor  handkerchiefs,  nor  sleeves,  nor  mufflers,  nor 
biggins." 

In  1636  Mary  Dudley,  the  daughter  of  Governor 
John  Winthrop,  had  a  little  baby.     She  did  not  live 


The  Dress  of  Old-time  Children  309 

in  Boston  town,  therefore  her  mother  had  to  pur- 
chase supplies  for  her;  and  many  letters  crossed, 
telling  of  wants,  and  their  relief.  "  Holland  for 
biggins  "  was  eagerly  sought.  At  that  date  all  babies 
wore  caps.  I  mean  English  and  French,  Dutch  and 
Spanish,  all  mothers  deemed  it  unwise  and  almost 
improper  for  a  young  baby  ever  to  be  seen  bare- 
headed. With  the  imperfect  heating  and  many 
draughts  in  all  the  houses,  this 
mode  of  dress  may  have  been 
wholly  wise  and  indeed  neces- 
sary. Every  child's  head  was 
covered,  as  the  pictures  of  chil- 
dren in  this  book  show,  until  he 
or  she  was  several  years  old. 
The  finest  needlework  and  lace 
stitches  were  lavished  on  these 
tiny  infants'  caps,  which  were 
not,  when  thus  adorned  and 
ornamented,  called  biggins. 

A  favorite  trimming  for  night- 
caps and  infants'  caps  is  a  sort 
of  quilting  in  a  leaf  and  vine  Infant's  AdJ'ustable  Cap. 
pattern,  done  with  a  white  cord  inserted  between  outer 
and  inner  pieces  of  linen  —  a  cord  stuffing,  as  it  were. 
It  does  not  seem  oversuited  for  caps  to  be  worn  in 
bed  or  by  little  infants,  as  the  stiff  cords  must  prove 
a  disagreeable  cushion.  This  work  was  done  as 
early  as  the  seventeenth  century ;  but  nearly  all  the 
pieces  preserved  were  made  in  the  early  years  of  the 
nineteenth  century  in  the  revival  of  needlework 
then  so  universal. 


310  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

Often  a  velvet  cap  was  worn  outside  the  biggin  or 
lace  cap. 

I  have  never  seen  a  woollen  petticoat  that  was 
worn  by  an  infant  of  pre-Revolutionary  days.  I 
think  infants  had  no  woollen  petticoats ;  their 
shirts,  petticoats,  and  gowns  were  of  linen  or  some 
cotton  stuff  like  dimity.  Warmth  of  clothing  was 
given  by  tiny  shawls  pinned  round  the  shoulders, 
and  heavier  blankets  and  quilts  and  shawls  in  which 
baby  and  petticoats  were  wholly  enveloped. 

The  baby  dresses  of  olden  times  are  either  rather 
shapeless  sacques  drawn  in  at  the  neck  with  narrow 
cotton  ferret  or  linen  bobbin,  or  little  straight-waisted 
gowns' of  state.  All  were  exquisitely  made  by  hand, 
and  usually  of  fine  stuff.  Many  are  trimmed  with 
fine  cording. 

It  is  astounding  to  note  the  infinite  number  of 
stitches  put  in  garments.  An  infant's  slips  quilted 
with  a  single  tiny  backstitch  in  a  regular  design 
of  interlaced  squares,  stars,  and  rounds.  By  count- 
ing the  number  of  rounds  and  the  stitches  in  each, 
and  so  on,  it  has  been  found  that  there  are  397,000 
stitches  in  that  dress.  Think  of  the  time  spent 
even  by  the  quickest  sewer  over  such  a  piece  of 
work. 

Within  a  few  years  we  have  shortened  the  long 
clothes  worn  by  youngest  infants  ;  twenty-five  years 
ago  the  handsome  dress  of  an  infant,  such  as  the 
christening-robe,  was  so  long  that  when  the  child  was 
held  on  the  arm  of  its  standing  nurse  or  mother, 
the  edge  of  the  robe  barely  escaped  touching  the 
ground.     Two  hundred  years  ago,  a  baby's  dress  was 


The  Dress  of  Old-time  Children  311 

much  shorter.  In  the  family  group  of  Charles  I  and 
Henrietta  Maria  and  their  children,  in  the  Copley 
family  picture,  and  in  the  picture  of  the  Cadwalader 
family,  we  find  the  little  baby  in  scarce  "  three-quar- 
ters length "  of  robe.  With  this  exception  it  is 
astonishing  to  find  how  little  infants'  dress  has 
changed  during  the  two  centuries.  In  1889,  at  the 
Stuart  Exhibition,  some  of  the  infant  dresses  of 
Charles  I  were  shown.  They  had  been  preserved  in 
the  family  of  Sir  Thomas  Coventry,  Lord  Keeper. 
And  Charles  II's  baby  linen  was  on  view  in  the  New 
Gallery  in  1901.  Both  sets  had  the  dainty  little 
shirts,  slips,  bibs,  mitts,  and  all  the  babies'  dress  of 
fifty  years  ago,  and  the  changes  since  then  have 
been  few.  The  "  barrow-coat,"  a  square  of  flannel 
wrapped  around  an  infant's  body  below  the  arms 
with  the  part  below  the  feet  turned  up  and  pinned, 
was  part  of  the  old  swaddling-clothes  ;  and  within 
ten  years  it  has  been  largely  abandoned  for  a  flannel 
petticoat  on  a  band  or  waist.  The  bands,  or  binders, 
have  always  been  the  same  as  to-day,  and  the  bibs. 
The  lace  cuffs  and  lace  mittens  were  left  ofT  before 
the  caps.  The  shirt  is  the  most  important  change. 
Nowadays  a  little  infant  wears  long  clothes  till 
three,  four,  or  even  eight  months  old  ;  then  he  is 
put  in  short  dresses  about  as  long  as  he  is.  In 
colonial  days  when  a  boy  was  taken  from  his  swad- 
dling-clothes, he  was  dressed  in  a  short  frock  with 
petticoats  and  was  "  coated  "  or  sometimes  "  short- 
coated."  When  he  left  off  coats,  he  donned  breeches. 
In  families  of  sentiment  and  affection,  the  "  coating  " 
of  a  boy  was  made  a  little  festival.     So  was  also  the 


312  Two   Centuries  of  Costume 

assumption  of  breeches  an  important  event  —  as  it 
really  is,  as  we  all  know  who  have  boys. 

One  of  the  most  charming  of  all  grandmothers' 
letters  was  written  by  a  doting  English  grandmother 
to  her  son,  Lord  Chief  Justice  North,  telling  of  the 
"leaving  off  of  coats"  of  his  motherless  little  son, 
Francis  Guilford,  then  six  years  old.  The  letter  is 
dated  October  10,  1679:  — 

"  Dear  Son  :  You  cannot  beleeve  the  great  concerne 
that  was  in  the  whole  family  here  last  Wednesday,  it  being 
the  day  that  the  taylor  was  to  helpe  to  dress  little  ffrank  in 
his  breeches  in  order  to  the  making  an  everyday  suit  by  it. 
Never  had  any  bride  that  was  to  be  drest  upon  her  weding 
night  more  handes  about  her,  some  the  legs,  some  the  armes, 
the  taylor  butt'ning,  and  others  putting  on  the  sword,  and 
so  many  lookers  on  that  had  I  not  a  ffinger  amongst  I  could 
not  have  seen  him.  When  he  was  quite  drest  he  acted  his 
part  as  well  as  any  of  them  for  he  desired  he  might  goe 
downe  to  inquire  for  the  little  gentleman  that  was  there  the 
day  before  in  a  black  coat,  and  speak  to  the  man  to  tell  the 
gentleman  when  he  came  from  school  that  there  was  a  gal- 
lant with  very  fine  clothes  and  a  sword  to  have  waited  upon 
him  and  would  come  again  upon  Sunday  next.  But  this 
was  not  all,  there  was  great  contrivings  while  he  was  dress- 
ing who  should  have  the  first  salute ;  but  he  sayd  if  old 
Joan  had  been  here,  she  should,  but  he  gave  it  to  me  to 
quiett  them  all.  They  were  very  fitt,  everything,  and  he 
looks  taller  and  prettyer  than  in  his  coats.  Little  Charles 
rejoyced  as  much  as  he  did  for  he  jumpt  all  the  while  about 
him  and  took  notice  of  everything.  I  went  to  Bury,  and 
bo:  everything  for  another  suitt  which  will  be  finisht  on 
Saturday  so  the  coats  are  to  be  quite  left  off  on  Sunday. 
I  consider  it  is  not  yett  terme  time  and  since  you  could  not 


The  Dress  of  Old-time  Children  313 

have  the  pleasure  of  the  first  sight,  I  resolved  you  should 
have  a  full  relation  from 

"  Yor  most  Affnate  Mother 

"  A.  North. 
"  When  he  was  drest  he  asked   Buckle  whether  muffs 
were  out  of  fashion  because  they  had  not  sent  him  one." 

This  affectionate  letter,  written  to  a  great  and 
busy  statesman,  the  Lord  Keeper  of  the  Seals,  shows 
how  pure  and  delightful  domestic  life  in  England 
could  be ;  it  shows  how  beautiful  it  was  after  Puri- 
tanism perfected  the  English  home. 

In  an  old  family  letter  dated  1780  I  find  this 
sentence  :  — 

"  Mary  is  most  wise  with  her  child,  and  hath  no  new- 
fangledness.  She  has  little  David  in  what  she  wore  herself, 
a  pudding  and  pinner." 

For  a  time  these  words  "pudding  and  pinner" 
were  a  puzzle;  and  long  after  pinner  was  defined 
we  could  not  even  guess  at  a  pudding.  But  now 
I  know  two  uses  of  the  word  "pudding"  which  are 
in  no  dictionary.  One  is  the  stuffing  of  a  man's 
great  neck-cloth  in  front,  under  the  chin.  The  other 
is  a  thick  roll  or  cushion  stuffed  with  wool  or  some 
soft  filling  and  furnished  with  strings.  This  pud- 
ding was  tied  round  the  head  of  a  little  child  while 
it  was  learning  to  walk.  The  head  was  thus  pro- 
tected from  serious  bruises  or  injury.  Nollekens 
noted  with  satisfaction  such  a  pudding  on  the  head 
of  an  infant,  and  said  :  "  That  is  right.  I  always 
wore  a  pudding,  and  all  children  should."  I  saw 
one  upon  a  child's  head  last  summer  in  a  New  Eng- 


3T4  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

land  town  ;  I  asked  the  mother  what  it  was,  and  she 
answered,  "A  pudding-cap";  that  it  made  children 
soft  (idiotic)  to  bump  the  head  frequently. 

The  word  "pinner"  has  two  meanings.  The 
earlier  use  was  precisely  that  of  pinafore,  or  pin- 
curtle,  or  pincloth  —  a  child's  apron.  Thus  we  read 
in  the  Harvard  College  records,  of  the  expenses  of 
the  year  1677,  of"  Linnen  Cloth  for  Table  Pinners," 
which  makes  us  suspect  that  Harvard  students  of 
that  day  had  to  wear  bibs  at  commons. 

All  children  wore  aprons,  which  might  be  called 
pinners;  these  were  aprons  with  pinned-up  bibs;  or 
they  might  be  tiers,  which  were  sleeved  aprons  cover- 
ing the  whole  waist,  sleeves,  and  skirt,  an  outer  slip, 
buttoned  in  the  back. 

A  severe  and  ancient  moralist  looked  forth  from 
her  window  in  Worcester,  one  day  last  spring,  at  a 
band  of  New  England  children  running  to  their 
morning  school.  She  gazed  over  her  glasses  reprov- 
ingly, and  turned  to  me  with  bitterness :  "  There 
they  go  !  Such  mothers  as  they  must  have  !  Not 
a  pinner  nor  a  sleeved  tier  among  'em." 

The  sleeved  tier  occupied  a  singular  place  in 
childish  opinion  in  my  youth ;  and  I  find  the  same 
feeling  anent  it  had  existed  for  many  generations. 
It  was  hated  by  all  children,  regarded  as  something 
to  be  escaped  from  at  the  earliest  possible  date. 
You  had  to  wear  sleeved  tiers  as  you  had  to  have 
the  mumps.  It  was  a  thing  to  endure  with  what 
childish  patience  and  fortitude  you  could  command 
for  a  short  time ;  but  thoughtful,  tender  parents 
would  not  make  you  suffer  it  long. 


The  Dress  of  Old-time  Children  315 

There  were  aprons,  and  aprons.  Pinners  and 
tiers  were  for  use,  but  there  were  elegant  aprons  for 
ornament.  Did  not  Queen  Anne  wear  one  ?  Even 
babies  wore  them.  The  little  Padishal  child  has 
one  richly  laced.  I  have  seen  a  beautiful  apron  for  a 
little  child  of  three.  It  was  edged  with  a  straight  in- 
sertion of  Venetian  point  like  that  pictured  on  page 
64.  It  had  been  made  in  1690.  Tender  affection 
for  a  beloved  and  beautiful  little  child  preserved  it 
in  one  trunk  in  the  same  attic  for  sixty-five  years  ; 
and  a  beautiful  sympathy  for  that  mother's  long  sor- 
row kept  the  apron  untouched  by  young  lace-lovers. 
This  lace  has  white  horsehair  woven  into  the  edge. 

We  find  George  Washington  ordering  for  his 
little  stepdaughter  (a  well-dressed  child  if  ever  there 
was  one),  when  she  was  six  years  old,  "  A  fashion- 
able cap  or  fillet  with  bib  apron."  And  a  few  years 
later  he  orders,  "  Tuckers,  Bibs,  and  Aprons  if 
Fashionable."  Boys  wore  aprons  as  long  as  they 
wore  coats ;  aprons  with  stomachers  or  bibs  of 
drawn-work  and  lace,  or  of  stiffly  starched  lawn ; 
aprons  just  like  those  of  their  sisters.  It  was  hard 
to  bear.  Hoop-coat,  masks,  packthread  stays  — 
these  seem  strange  dress  for  growing  girls. 

George  Washington  sent  abroad  for  masks  for  his 
wife  and  his  little  stepdaughter,  "  Miss  Custis," 
when  the  little  girl  was  six  years  old ;  and  "  chil- 
dren's masks "  are  often  named  in  bills  of  sale. 
Loo-masks  were  small  half-masks,  and  were  also 
imported  in  all  sizes. 

The  face  of  Mrs.  Madison,  familiarly  known  as 
"Dolly  Madison,"  wife  of  President  James  Madi- 


316 


Two   Centuries   of  Costume 


son,  long  retained  the  beauty  of  youth.  Much  of 
this  was  surely  due  to  a  faithful  mother,  who,  when 
little  Dolly  Payne  was  sent  to  school,  sewed  a  sun- 
bonnet  on  the  child's  head  every  morning,  placed  on 
her  arms  and  hands  long  gloves,  and  made  her  wear 
a  mask  to  keep  every  ray  of  sun- 
light from  her  face.  When 
masks  were  so  universally  worn 
by  women,  it  is  not  strange, 
after  all,  that  children  wore  them. 
I  read  with  horror  an  adver- 
,4J     BttjS  tisement   of  John    McQueen,  a 

New  York  stay-maker  in  1767, 
I  that  he  has  children's  packthread 

Bfl^L  stays,  children's  bone  stays,  and 

"  neat  polished  steel  collars  for 
young   Misses  so  much  worn  at 
the  boarding  schools  in  London." 
Poor  little  "  young  Misses  "  ! 
There  were  also  "  turned  stays,  jumps,  gazzets, 
costrells  and  caushets  "  (which  were  perhaps  corsets) 
to  make  children  appear  straight.    Costrells  and  gaz- 
zets we  know  not  to-day.     Jumps  were  feeble  stays. 

"  Now  a  shape  in  neat  stays 
Now  a  slattern  in  jumps." 

Jumps  were  allied  to  jimps,  and  perhaps  to  jupe; 
and  I  think  jumper  is  a  cousin  of  a  word.  One  pair 
of  stays  I  have  seen  is  labelled  as  having  been  made 
for  a  boy  of  five.  One  of  the  worst  instruments  of 
torture  I  ever  beheld  was  a  pair  of  child's  stays 
worn  in  1760.     They  were  made,  not  of  little  strips 


Rev.  J.   P.   Dabney 
when  a  Child. 


Robert  Gibbes. 


The  Dress  of  Old-time  Children  317 

of  wood,  but  of  a  large  piece  of  board,  front  and 
back,  tightly  sewed  into  a  buckram  jacket  and  reen- 
forced  across  at  right  angles  and  diagonally  over  the 
hips  (though  really  there  were  no  hip-places)  with 
bars  of  whalebone  and  steel.  The  tin  corsets  1  have 
heard  of  would  not  have  been  half  as  ill  to  wear.  It 
is  true,  too,  that  needles  were  placed  in  the  front  of 
the  stays,  that  the  stay-wearer  who  "  poked  her  head  " 
would  be  well  pricked.  The  daughter  of  General 
Nathanael  Greene,  the  Revolutionary  patriot,  told  her 
grandchildren  that  she  sat  many  hours  every  day  in 
her  girlhood,  with  her  feet  in  stocks  and  strapped  to 
a  backboard.  A  friend  has  a  chair  of  ordinary  size, 
save  that  the  seat  is  about  four  inches  wide  from  the 
front  edge  of  seat  to  the  back.  And  the  back  is  well 
worn  at  certain  points  where  a  heavy  leather  strap 
strapped  up  the  young  girl  who  was  tortured  in  it 
for  six  years  of  her  life.  The  result  of  back  board, 
stocks,  steel  collar,  wooden  stays,  is  shown  in  such 
figures  as  have  Dorothy  Q.  and  her  sister  Elizabeth. 
Elizabeth  Storer,  on  page  98  of  my  Child  Life  in 
Colonial  Days,  is  an  extreme  example,  straight-backed 
indeed,  but  narrow-chested  to  match. 

Dr.  Holmes  wrote  in  jest,  but  he  wrote  in  truth, 
too  :  — 

"  They  braced  My  Aunt  against  a  board 

To  make  her  straight  and  tall, 
They  laced  her  up,  they  starved  her  down, 

To  make  her  light  and  small. 
They  pinched  her  feet,  they  singed  her  hair, 

They  screwed  it  up  with  pins, 
Oh,  never  mortal  suffered  more 

In  penance  for  her  sins." 


3i» 


Centuries  of  Costume 


Nankeen  was  the  favorite  wear  for  boys,  even  be- 
fore the  Revolution.  The  little  figure  of  the  boy 
who  became  Lord  Lyndhurst,  shown  in  the  Copley 
family  portrait,  is  dressed  in  nankeen;  he  is  the 
engaging,  loving  child  looking  up 
in  his  mother's  face.  Nankeen 
was  worn  summer  and  winter  by 
men,  and  women,  and  children. 
If  it  were  deemed  too  thin  and 
too  damp  a  wear  for  delicate  chil- 
dren in  extreme  winters,  then  a 
yellow  color  in  wool  was  pre- 
ferred for  children's  dress.  I  have 
seen  a  little  pair  of  breeches  of 
yellow  flannel  made  precisely  like 
these  nankeen  breeches  on  this 
page.  They  were  worn  in  1768. 
Carlyle  in  his  Sartor  Resartus  gives  this  account 
of  the  childhood  of  the  professor  and  philosopher 
of  his  book  :  — 


Nankeen  Breeches  with 
Silver  Buttons. 


"  My  first  short  clothes  were  of  yellow  serge  ;  or  rather,  I 
should  say,  my  first  short  cloth  ;  for  the  vesture  was  one 
and  indivisible,  reaching  from  neck  to  ankle;  a  single  body 
with  four  limbs  ;  of  which  fashion  how  little  could  I  then 
divine  the  architectural,  much  less  the  moral  significance." 


It  is  a  curious  coincidence  that  a  great  philosopher 
of  our  own  world  wore  a  precisely  similar  dress  in 
his  youth.  Madam  Mary  Bradford  writes  in  a  pri- 
vate letter,  at  the  age  of  one  hundred  and  three,  of 
her  life  in  1805  in  the  household  of  Rev.  Joseph 
Emerson.      Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  was  then  a  little 


The  Dress  of  Old-time  Children  319 

child  of  two  years,  and  he  and  his  brother  William 
till  several  years  old  were  dressed  wholly  in  yellow 
flannel,  by  night  and  by  day.  When  they  put  on 
trousers,  which  was  at  about  the  age  of  seven    they 


Ralph  Izard  when  a  Little  Boy.     1750. 

wore  complete  home-made  suits  of  nankeen.  The 
picture  amuses  me  of  the  philosophical  child,  Ralph 
Waldo,  walking  soberly  around  in  ugly  yellow  flan- 
nel contentedly  sucking  his  thumb  ;  for  Mrs.  Brad- 
ford records  that  he  was  the  hardest  child  to  break 


320  Two   Centuries   of  Costume 

of  sucking  his  thumb  whom  she  ever  had  seen  dur- 
ing her  long  life.  I  cannot  help  wondering  whether 
in  their  soul-to-soul  talks  Emerson  ever  told  Car- 
lyle  of  the  yellow  woollen  dress  of  his  childhood,  and 
thus  gave  him  the  thought  of  the  child's  dress  for 
his  philosopher. 

Fortunately  for  the  children  who  were  our  grand- 
parents, French  fashions  were  not  absorbingly  the 
rage  in  America  until  after  some  amelioration  of  dress 
had  come  to  French  children.  Mercier  wrote  at 
length  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  of  the 
abominable  artificiality  and  restraint  in  dress  of 
French  children  ;  their  great  wigs,  full-skirted  coats, 
immense  ruffles,  swords  on  thigh,  and  hat  in  hand. 
He  contrasts  them  disparagingly  with  English  boys. 
The  English  boy  was  certainly  more  robust,  but  I 
find  no  difference  in  dress.  Wigs,  swords,  ruffles, 
may  be  seen  at  that  time  both  in  English  and  Ameri- 
can portraits.  But  an  amelioration  of  dress  did  come 
to  both  English  and  American  boys  through  the 
introduction  of  pantaloons,  and  a  change  to  little 
girls'  dress  through  the  invention  of  pantalets, 
but  the  changes  came  first  to  France,  in  spite  of 
Mercier's  animadversions.  These  changes  will  be 
left  until  the  later  pages  of  this  book  ;  for  during 
nearly  all  the  two  hundred  years  of  which  I  write 
children's  dress  varied  little.  It  followed  the  changes 
of  the  parent's  dress,  and  adopted  some  modes  to  a 
degree  but  never  to  an  extreme. 


CHAPTER   XI 

PERUKES    AND    PERIWIGS 

"  As  to  a  Periwigg,  my  best  and  Greatest  Friend  begun  to 
find  me  with  Hair  before  I  was  Born,  and  has  continued  to  do 
so  ever  since,  and  I  could  not  find  it  in  my  Heart  to  go  to 
another" 

—  "  Diary,"  Judge  Samuel  Sewall,  1718. 

A  phrensy  or  a  periwigmanee 
That  over-runs  his  pericranie. 

—  John  Byron,  1730  (circa). 


CHAPTER   XI 

PERUKES    AND    PERIWIGS 

0-DAY,  when  every  man,  save  a  foot- 
ball player  or  some  eccentric  reformer 
or  religious  fanatic,  displays  in  youth 
a  close-cropped  head,  and  when  even 
hoary  age  is  seldom  graced  with  flow- 
ing, silvery  locks,  when  women's  hair  is  dressed  in 
simplicity,  we  can  scarcely  realize  the  important  and 
formal  part  the  hair  played  in  the  dress  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century. 

In  the  great  eagerness  shown  from  earliest  colo- 
nial days  to  acquire  and  reproduce  in  the  New  World 
every  change  of  mode  in  the  Old,  to  purchase  rich 
dress,  and  to  assume  novel  dress,  no  article  was 
sought  for  more  speedily  and  more  anxiously  than 
the  wig.  It  has  proved  an  interesting  study  to  com- 
pare the  introduction  of  wigs  in  England  with  the 
wear  of  the  same  form  of  head-gear  in  America. 
Wigs  were  not  in  general  use  in  England  when 
Plymouth  and  Boston  were  settled  ;  though  in  Eliza- 
beth's day  a  "  peryuke "  had  been  bought  for  the 
court  fool.  They  were  not  in  universal  wear  till 
the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

The  "  Wig  Mania  "  arose  in  France  in  the  reign 
of  Louis  XV,      In  1656  the  king  had  forty  court 
323 


324 


Two  Centuries  of  Costume 


perruquiers,  who  were  termed  and  deemed  artists, 
and  had  their  academy.  The  wigs  they  produced 
were  superb.  It  is  told  that  one  cost  X200'  a  sum 
equal  in  purchasing  power  to-day  to  $5000.  The 
French  statesman  and  financier,  Colbert,  aghast  at 
the  vast  sums  spent  for  foreign  hair,  endeavored  to 
introduce  a  sort  of  cap  to 
supplant  the  wig,  but  fash- 
ions are  not  made  that 
way. 

For  information  of  Eng- 
lish manners  and  customs 
in  that  day,  I  turn  (and 
never  in  vain)  to  those 
fascinating  volumes,  the 
Verney  Memoirs.  From 
them  I  learn  this  of  early 
wig-wearing  by  English- 
men ;  that  Sir  Ralph  Ver- 
ney, though  in  straitened 
circumstances  during  his  enforced  residence  abroad, 
felt  himself  compelled  to  follow  the  French  mode, 
which  at  that  period,  1646,  had  not  reached  Eng- 
land. That  exemplary  gentleman  paid  twelve  livres 
for  a  wig,  when  he  was  sadly  short  of  money  for 
household  necessaries.  It  was  an  elaborate  wig, 
curled  in  great  rings,  with  two  locks  tied  with  black 
ribbon,  and  made  without  any  parting  at  the  back. 
This  wig  was  powdered. 

Sir  Ralph  wrote  to  his  wife  that  a  good  hair-powder 
was  very  difficult  to  get  and  costly,  even  in  France. 
It  was  an  appreciable  addition  to  the  weight  of  the 


Governor  and  Reverend 
Gurdon  Saltonstall. 


Perukes  and  Periwigs 


3*5 


wig  and  to  the  expense,  large  quantities  being  used, 
sometimes  as  much  as  two  pounds  at  a  time.  It 
added  not  only  to  the  expense,  but  to  the  discom- 
fort, inconvenience,  and  untidiness  of  wig-wearing. 

Pomatum  made  of  fat,  and  that  sometimes  rancid, 
was  used  to  make  the  powder  stick ;  and  noxious 
substances  were  introduced  into  the  powder,  as  a  cer- 
tain kind  is  mentioned  which  must  not  be  used  alone, 
for  it  would  produce  headache. 

Charles  II  was  the  earliest  king  represented  on  the 
Great  Seal  wearing  a  large  periwig.      Dr.  Doran  as- 
sures us  that  the  king  did  not  bring  the  fashion  to 
Whitehall.      "He   forbade/ 
we  are   told,  "  the  members 
of  the  Universities  to  wear 
periwigs,  smoke  tobacco,  or 
read    their    sermons.       The 
members  did  all  three,  and 
Charles  soon  found  himself 
doing  the  first  two." 

Pepys's  Diary  contains 
much  interesting  information 
concerning  the  wigs  of  this 
reign.  On  2d  of  November, 
1663,  he  writes:  "I  heard 
the  Duke  say  that  he  was 
going  to  wear  a  periwig,  and  says  the  King  also  will. 
I  never  till  this  day  observed  that  the  King  is  mighty 
gray."  It  was  doubtless  this  change  in  the  color  of 
his  Majesty's  hair  that  induced  him  to  assume  the 
head-dress  he  had  previously  so  strongly  condemned. 

The  wig  he  adopted  was  very  voluminous,  richly 


Mayor  Rip  Van  Dam. 


326  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

curled,  and  black.  He  was  very  dark.  "  Odds 
fish  !  but  I'm  an  ugly  black  fellow  !  "  he  said  of 
himself  when  he  looked  at  his  portrait.  Loyal 
colonists  quickly  followed  royal  example  and  com- 
plexion. We  have  very  good  specimens  of  this  curly 
black  wig  in  many  American  portraits. 

As  might  be  expected,  and  as  befitted  one  who 
delighted  to  be  in  fashion,  Pepys  adopted  this  wig. 
He  took  time  to  consider  the  matter,  and  had  con- 
sultations with  Mr.  Jervas,  his  old  barber,  about  the 
affair.  Referring  to  one  of  his  visits  to  his  hair- 
dresser, Pepys  says  :  — 

"  I  did  try  two  or  three  borders  and  periwigs,  meaning  to 
wear  one,  and  yet  I  have  no  stomach  for  it ;  but  that  the 
pains  of  keeping  my  hair  clean  is  great.  He  trimmed  me, 
and  at  last  I  parted,  but  my  mind  was  almost  altered  from 
my  first  purpose,  from  the  trouble  which  I  foresee  in  wear- 
ing them  also." 

Weeks  passed  before  he  could  make  up  his  mind 
to  wear  a  wig.  Mrs.  Pepys  was  taken  to  the  peri- 
wig-maker's shop  to  see  one,  and  expressed  her  sat- 
isfaction with  it.  We  read  in  April,  1665,  of  the 
wig  being  back  at  Jervas's  under  repair.  Later, 
under  date  of  September  3d,  he  writes  :  — 

"  Lord's  day.  Up  ;  and  put  on  my  coloured  silk  suit, 
very  fine,  and  my  new  periwig,  bought  a  good  while  since, 
but  durst  not  wear,  because  the  plague  was  in  Westmin- 
ster when  I  bought  it  ;  and  it  is  a  wonder  what  will  be  in 
fashion,  after  the  plague  is  done,  as  to  periwigs,  for  no- 
body will  dare  to  buy  any  hair,  for  fear  of  the  infection,  that 
it  had  been  cut  off  the  heads  of  people  dead  of  the  plague." 


Perukes  and  Periwi 


gs 


327 


In  1670,  only  five  years  after  this  entry  of  Pepys, 
we  find  Governor  Barefoot  of  New  Hampshire 
wearing  a  periwig;  and  in  1675  t^le  court  of 
Massachusetts,  in  view  of  the  distresses  of  the 
Indian  wars,  denounced  the  "manifest  pride  openly 
appearing  amongst  us  in  that  long  hair,  like  women's 
hair  is  worn  by  some  men,  either  their  own  hair,  or 
others'  hair  made 
into  periwigs." 

In      1676     Wait 
Winthrop  sent  a  wig 

(Price  £3)  to  his 
brotherin  New  Lon- 
don. Mr.  Sergeant 
had  brought  it  from 
England  for  his  own 
use  ;  but  was  willing 
to  sell  it  to  oblige  a 
friend,  who  was,  I 
am  confident,  very 
devoted  to  wig-wear- 
ing. The  largest  wig 
that  I  recall  upon 
any  colonist's  head  is  in  the  portrait  of  Governor 
Fitz-John  Winthrop.  He  is  painted  in  armor;  and 
a  great  wig  never  seems  so  absurd  as  when  worn 
with  armor.  Horace  Walpole  said,  "  Perukes  of  out- 
rageous length  flowing  over  suits  of  armour  compose 
wonderful  habits."  An  edge  of  Winthrop's  own 
dark  hair  seems  to  show  under  the  wig  front.  I  do 
not  know  the  precise  date  of  this  portrait.  It  was, 
of  course,  painted  in  England.      He  served  in  the 


Abraham  De  Peyster. 


32! 


Two   Centuries   of  Costume 


Parliamentary  army  with  General  Monck ;  returned 
to  New  England  in  1663,  and  was  commander  of  the 
New  England  forces.  He  spent  1693  to  1697  in 
England  as  commissioner.      Sir  Peter  Lely  and   Sir 

Godfrey  Kneller  both 
were  painting  in  Eng- 
land in  those  years,  and 
both  were  constant  in 
painting  men  with  armor 
and  perukes.  This  por- 
trait seems  like  Knel- 
ler's  work. 

Another  portrait 
attired  also  in  armor 
and  peruke  is  of  Sir 
Nathaniel  Johnson,  who 
was  appointed  governor 
of  South  Carolina  by 
the  Lords  Proprietors 
in  1702.     The  portrait 

Governor  De   Bienville.  •  ,     •    L 

was  painted  in  1705. 
It  is  one  of  the  few  of  that  date  which  show  a  faint 
mustache;  he  likewise  wears  a  seal  ring  with  coat- 
of-arms  on  the  little  finger  of  his  left  hand,  which 
was  unusual  at  that  day.  De  Bienville,  the  gov- 
ernor of  Louisiana,  is  likewise  in  wig  and  armor. 
In  1682  Thomas  Richbell  died  in  Boston,  leaving 
a  very  rich  and  costly  wardrobe.  He  had  eight 
wigs.  Of  these,  three  were  small  periwigs  worth 
but  a  pound  apiece.  In  New  York,  in  Virginia, 
in  all  the  colonies,  these  wigs  were  worn,  and  were 
just    as    large    and    costly,    as    elaborately    curled, 


Perukes  and  Periwigs 


3*9 


as  heavily  powdered,  as  at  the  English  and  French 
courts. 

Archbishop  Tillotson  is  usually  regarded  as  the 
first  amongst  the  English  clergy  to  adopt  the  wig. 
He  said  in  one  of  his  sermons  :  — 

"  I  can  remember  since  the  wearing  of  hair  below  the 
ears  was  looked  upon  as  a  sin  of  the  first  magnitude,  and 
when  ministers  generally,  whatever  their  text  was,  did 
either  find  or  make  occasion  to  reprove  the  great  sin  of 
long  hair ;  and  if  they  saw  any  one  in  the  congregation 
guilty  in  that  kind,  they  would  point  him  out  particularly, 
and  let  fly  at  him  with  great  zeal." 

Dr.  Tillotson  died  on  November  24,  1694. 

Long  before  that  American  preachers  had  felt  it 
necessary  to  "  let  fly  "  also ; 
to  denounce  wig-wearing 
from  their  pulpits.  The 
question  could  not  be  set- 
tled, since  the  ministers 
themselves  could  not  agree. 
John  Wilson,  the  zealous 
Boston  minister,  wore  one, 
and  John  Cotton  (see  page 
42);  while  Rev.  Mr. 
Noyes  preached  long  and 
often  against  the  fashion. 
John  Eliot,  the  noble 
preacher  and  missionary  to 
the  Indians,  found  time  even  in  the  midst  of  his 
arduous  and  incessant  duties  to  deliver  many  a  blast 
against  "prolix   locks,"  —  "with   boiling   zeal,"    as 


Daniel  Waldo. 


330  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

Cotton  Mather  said,  —  and  he  labelled  them  a  "  lux- 
urious feminine  protexity  "  ;  but  lamented  late  in 
life  that  "  the  lust  for  wigs  is  become  insuperable." 
He  thought  the  horrors  in  King  Philip's  War  were 
a  direct  punishment  from  God  for  wig-wearing.  In- 
crease Mather  preached  warmly  against  wigs,  calling 
them  "  Horrid  Bushes  of  Vanity,"  and  saying  that 
"such  Apparel  is  contrary  to  the  light  of  Nature, 
and  to  express  Scripture,"  and  that  "  Monstrous 
Periwigs  such  as  some  of  our  church  members  in- 
dulge in  make  them  resemble  ye  locusts  that  came 
out  of  ye  Bottomless  Pit." 

Rev.  George  Weeks  preached  a  sermon  on  im- 
propriety in  clothes.  He  said  in  regard  to  wig- 
wearing  :  — 

"  We  have  no  warrant  in  the  word  of  God,  that  I  know 
of,  for  our  wearing  of  Periwigs  except  it  be  in  extraordi- 
nary cases.  Elisha  did  not  cover  his  head  with  a  Perriwigg 
altho'  it  was  bald.  To  see  the  greater  part  of  Men  in 
some  congregations  wearing  Perriwiggs  is  a  matter  of  deep 
lamentation.  For  either  all  these  men  had  a  necessity  to 
cut  off  their  Hair  or  else  not.  If  they  had  a  necessity  to 
cut  off  their  Hair  then  we  have  reason  to  take  up  a  lamen- 
tation over  the  sin  of  our  first  Parents  which  hath  occa- 
sioned so  many  Persons  in  our  Congregation  to  be  sickly, 
weakly,  crazy  Persons." 

Long  "  Ruffianly  "  or  "  Russianly  "  (I  know  not 
which  word  is  right)  hair  equally  worried  the  par- 
sons. President  Chauncey  of  Harvard  College 
preached  upon  it,  for  the  college  undergraduates 
were  vexingly  addicted  to  prolix  locks.  Rev.  Mr. 
Wigglesworth's  sermon  on  the  subject  has  often  been 


Perukes  and  Periwigs 


33* 


reprinted,  and  is  full  of  logical  arguments.  This 
offence  was  named  on  the  list  of  existing  evils  which 
was  made  by  the  general  court :  that  "the  men  wore 
long  hair  like  women's  hair."  Still,  the  Puritan  mag- 
istrates, omnipotent  as  they  were  in  small  things, 
did  not  dare  to  force  the  becurled  citizens  of  the 
little  towns  to  cut  their  long  love-locks,  though  they 
bribed  them  to  do  so.  A 
Salem  man  was,  in  1687,  fined 
10s.  for  a  misdemeanor,  but 
"  in  case  he  shall  cutt  off  his 
long  har  of  his  head  into  a 
sevill  (civil  ?)  frame,  in  the 
mean  time  shall  have  abated 
5s.  of  his  fine."  John  Eliot 
hated  long,  natural  hair  as  well 
as  false  hair.  Rev.  Cotton 
Mather  said  of  him,  in  a  very  unpleasant  figure  of 
speech,  "  The  hair  of  them  that  professed  religion 
grew  too  long  for  him  to  swallow."  His  own  hair 
curled  on  his  shoulders,  and  would  seem  long  to  us 
to-day. 

A  climax  of  wig-hating  was  reached  by  one  who 
has  been  styled  "  The  Last  of  the  Puritans "  — 
Judge  Samuel  Sewall  of  Boston.  Constant  refer- 
ences in  his  diary  show  how  this  hatred  influenced 
his  daily  life.  He  despised  wigs  so  long  and  so 
deeply,  he  thought  and  talked  and  prayed  upon 
them,  until  they  became  to  him  of  undue  impor- 
tance ;  they  became  godless  emblems  of  iniquity ; 
an  unutterable  snare  and  peril. 

We  find  Sewall  copying  with  evident  approval   a 


Reverend  John  Marsh. 


33' 


Two  Centuries  of  Costume 


"scandalous  bill"  which  had  been  "posted"  on  the 
church  in  Plymouth  in  iyoi.  In  this  a  few  lines 
ran :  — 

"  Our  churches  are  too  genteel. 
Parsons  grow  trim  and  trigg 
With  wealth,  wine,  and  wigg, 

And  their  crowns  are  covered  with  meal." 


Bitter  must  have  been  his  efforts  to  reconcile  to 
his  conscience  the  sight  of  wigs  upon  the  heads  of 
his  parson  friends,  worn 
boldly  in  the  pulpit.  He 
would  refrain  from  attend- 
ing a  church  where  the  par- 
son wore  a  wig ;  and  his 
italicized  praise  of  a  dead 
friend  was  that  he  "  was  a 
true  New-English  man  and 
abominated  periwigs."  A 
Boston  wig-maker  died  a 
drunkard,  and  Sewall  took 
much  melancholy  satisfac- 
tion in  dilating  upon  it. 
Cotton  Mather  and  Sewall  had  many  pious  differ- 
ences and  personal  jealousies.  The  parson  was  a 
handsome  man  (see  his  picture  facing  page  42),  and 
he  was  a  harmlessly  and  naively  vain  man.  He 
quickly  adopted  a  "great  bush  of  vanity"  —  and  a 
very  personable  appearance  he  makes  in  it.  Soon 
we  find  him  inveighing  at  length  in  the  pulpit  against 
"  those  who  strain  at  a  gnat  and  swallow  a  camel, 
those  who  were  zealous  against  an  innocent  fashion 
taken  up  and  used  by  the  best  of  men."    "  'Tissup- 


John  Adams  in  Youth. 


Perukes  and  Periwigs  233 

posed  he  means  wearing  a  Perriwigg,"  writes  Sewall 
after  this  sermon  ;  "  I  expected  not  to  hear  a  vindica- 
tion of  Perriwiggs  in  Boston  pulpit  by  Mr.  Mather." 

Poor  Sewall !  his  regard  of  wigs  had  a  severe  test 
when  he  wooed  Madam  Winthrop  late  in  life.  She 
was  a  rich  widow.  He  had  courted  her  vainly  for  a 
second  wife.  And  now  he  "  yearned  for  her  deeply  " 
for  a  third  wife,  so  he  wrote.  And  ere  she  would 
consent  or  even  discuss  marriage  she  stipulated  two 
things  :  one,  that  he  keep  a  coach ;  the  other,  that 
he  wear  a  periwig.  When  all  the  men  of  dignity 
and  office  in  the  colony  were  bourgeoning  out  in 
great  flowing  perukes,  she  was  naturally  a  bit  averse 
to  an  elderly  lover  in  a  skullcap  or,  as  he  often 
wore,  a  hood.  His  love  did  not  make  him  waver  ; 
he  stoutly  persisted  in  his  refusal  to  assume  a  peri- 
wig. ... 

His  portrait  in  a  velvet  skullcap  shows  a  fringe 
of  white  curling  hair  with  a  few  forehead  locks.  I 
fancy  he  was  bald.  Here  is  his  entry  with  regard  to 
young  Parson  Willard's  wig,  in  the  year  1701  :  — 

"  Having  last  night  heard  that  Josiah  Willard  had  cut 
off  his  hair  (a  very  full  head  of  hair)  and  put  on  a  wig,  I 
went  to  him  this  morning.  When  I  told  his  mother  what 
I  came  about,  she  called  him.  Whereupon  I  inquired  of 
him  what  extreme  need  had  forced  him  to  put  off  his  own 
hair  and  put  on  a  wig  ?  He  answered,  none  at  all ;  he  said 
that  his  hair  was  straight,  and  that  it  parted  behind. 

"  He  seemed  to  argue  that  men  might  as  well  shave  their 
hair  off  their  head,  as  off  their  face.  I  answered  that  boys 
grew  to  be  men  before  they  had  hair  on  their  faces,  and  that 
half  of  mankind  never  have  any  beards.      I  told  him  that 


334 


Two  Centuries  of  Costume 


God  seems  to  have  created  our  hair  as  a  test,  to  see  whether 
we  can  bring  our  minds  to  be  content  at  what  he  gives  us, 
or  whether  we  would  be  our  own  carvers  and  come  back  to 
him  for  nothing  more.  We  might  dislike  our  skin  or  nails, 
as  he  disliked  his  hair;  but  in  our  case  no  thanks  are  due 
to  us  that  we  cut  them  not  off;  for  pain  and  danger  restrain 
us.  Your  duty,  said  I,  is  to  teach  men  self-denial.  I  told 
him,  further,  that  it  would  be  displeasing  and  burdensome 
to  good  men  for  him  to  wear  a  wig,  and  they  that  care 
not  what  men  think  of  them, 
care  not  what  God  thinks  of 
them. 

u  I  told  him  that  he  must 
remember  that  wigs  were  con- 
demned by  a  meeting  of  minis- 
ters at  Northampton.  I  told 
him  of  the  solemnity  of  the 
covenant  which  he  and  I  had 
lately  entered  into,  which  put 
upon  me  the  duty  of  discours- 
ing to  him. 

"  He  seemed  to  say  that  he  would  leave  off  his  wig  when 
his  hair  was  grown  again.  I  spoke  to  his  father  of  it  a 
day  or  two  afterwards  and  he  thanked  me  for  reasoning 
with  his  son. 

"  He  told  me  his  son  had  promised  to  leave  off  his  wig 
when  his  hair  was  grown  to  cover  his  ears.  If  the  father 
had  known  of  it,  he  would  have  forbidden  him  to  cut  off 
his  hair.  His  mother  heard  him  talk  of  it,  but  was  afraid 
to  forbid  him  for  fear  he  should  do  it  in  spite  of  her,  and 
so  be  more  faulty  than  if  she  had  let  him  go  his  own  way." 

Soon  nearly  every  parson  in  England  and  every 
colony  wore  wigs.  John  Wesley  alone  wore  what 
seems  to  be  his  own  white  hair  curled  under  softly 


Jonathan  Edwards,  2nd. 


Perukes  and   Perb 


335 


at  the  ends.     Whitfield  is  in  a  portentous  wig  like 
the  one  on  Dr.  Marsh  (page  331). 

In  the  time  of  Queen  Anne,  wigs  had  multiplied 
vastly  in  variety  as  they  had  increased  in  size.  I 
have  been  asked  the  difference  between  a  peruke  and 
a  wig.  Of  course  .both,  and  the  periwig,  are  simply 
wigs  ;  but  the  term  "  peruke  "  is  in  general  applied 
to  a  formal,  richly  curled  wig ;  and  the  word  "  peri- 
wig "  also  conveys  the  distinction  of  a  formal  wig. 
Of  less  dignity  were  riding-wigs,  nightcap  wigs,  and 
bag-wigs.  Bag-wigs  are  said  to  have  had  their  origin 
among  French  servants, 
who  tied  up  their  hair  in  a 
black  leather  bag  as  a  speedy 
way  of  dressing  it,  and  to 
keep  it  out  of  the  way 
when  at  other  and  disor- 
dering duties. 

In  May,  1706,  the  Eng- 
lish, led  by  Marlborough, 
gained  a  great  victory  on 
the  battle-field  of  Ramillies, 
and  that  gave  the  title  to  a 
new  wig  described  as  "  hav-  Patrick  Henry" 

ing  a  long,  gradually  diminishing,  plaited  tail,  called 
the  '  Ramillie-tail,'  which  was  tied  with  a  great  bow 
at  the  top  and  a  smaller  one  at  the  bottom."  The 
hair  also  bushed  out  at  both  sides  of  the  face. 
The  Ramillies  wig  shown  in  Hogarth's  Modern 
Midnight  Conversation  hanging  against  the  wall, 
is  reproduced  on  page  340.  This  wig  was  not  at 
first   deemed   full-dress.      Queen  Anne  was   deeply 


336  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

offended  because  Lord  Bolingbroke,  summoned  hur- 
riedly to  her,  appeared  in  a  Ramillies  wig  instead 
of  a  full-bottomed  peruke.  The  queen  remarked 
that  she  supposed  next  time  Lord  Bolingbroke  would 
come  in  his  nightcap.  It  was  the  same  offending 
nobleman  who  brought  in  the  fashion  of  the  mean 
little  tie-wigs. 

It  is  stated  in  Read's  Weekly  Journal  of  May  i, 
1736,  in  an  account  of  the  marriage  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales,  that  the  officers  of  the  Horse  and  Foot 
Guards  wore  Ramillies  periwigs  when  on  parade,  by 
his  Majesty's  order.  We  meet  in  the  reign  of  George 
II  other  forms  of  wigs  and  other  titles;  the  most 
popular  was  the  pigtail  wig.  The  pigtail  of  this  was 
worn  hanging  down  the  back  or  tied  up  in  a  knot 
behind.  This  pigtail  wig,  worn  for  so  many  years, 
is  shown  on  page  340.  It  was  popular  in  the  army 
for  sixty  years,  but  in  1804  orders  were  given  for  the 
pigtail  to  be  reduced  to  seven  inches  in  length,  and 
finally,  in  1808,  to  be  cut  off  wholly,  to  the  deep 
mourning  of  disciplinarians  who  deemed  a  soldier 
without  a  pigtail  as  hopeless  as  a  Manx  cat. 

Bob-wigs,  minor  and  major,  came  in  during  the 
reign  of  George  II.  The  bob-wig  was  held  to  be  a 
direct  imitation  of  the  natural  hair,  though,  of  course, 
it  deceived  no  one  ;  it  was  used  chiefly  by  poorer 
folk.  The  'prentice  minor  bob  was  close  and  short, 
the  citizen's  bob  major,  or  Sunday  buckle,  had  sev- 
eral rows  of  curls.  All  these  came  to  America  by 
the  hundreds  —  yes,  by  the  thousands.  Every  pro- 
fession and  almost  every  calling  had  its  peculiar 
wig.     The  caricatures  of  the  period  represent  full- 


King"  Carter.     Died  1732. 


Perukes  and   Periwigs 


337 


fledged  lawyers  with  a  towering  frontlet  and  a  long 
bag  at  the  back  tied  in  the  middle  ;  while  students 
of  the  university  have  a 
wig  flat  on  the  top,  to 
accommodate  their  stiff, 
square  -  cornered  hats, 
and  a  great  bag  like  a 
lawyer's  wig  at  the  back. 
"  When  the  law  lays 
down  its  full-bottom'd 
periwig  you  will  find 
less  wisdom  in  bald  pates 
than  you  are  aware  of," 
says  the  Choleric  Man. 
This  lawyer's  wig  is  the 
only  one  which  has  not 
been  changed  or  aban- 
doned. You  may  see 
it  here,  on  the  head  of  Judge  Benjamin  Lynde  of 
Salem.      He  died  in  1745.      Carlyle  sneers  :  — 

"  Has  not  your  Red  hanging-individual  a  horsehair  wig, 
squirrel-skins,  and  a  plush-gown  —  whereby  all  Mortals 
know  that  he  is  a  JUDGE  ?  " 

In  the  reigns  of  Anne  and  William  and  Mary 
perukes  grew  so  vast  and  cumbersome  that  a  wig 
was  invented  for  travelling  and  for  undress  wear,  and 
was  called  the  "  Campaign  wig."  It  would  not  seem 
very  simple  since  it  was  made  full  and  curled  to  the 
front,  and  had,  so  writes  a  contemporary,  Randle 
Holme,  in  his  Academy  of  Armory,  1684,  "knots 
and  bobs  a-dildo  on  each  side  and  a  curled  forehead." 


Judge  Benjamin   Lynde. 


33%  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

A  campaign  wig  from  Holme's  drawing  is  shown  on 
page  340. 

There  are  constant  references  in  old  letters  and  in 
early  literature  in  America  which  alter  much  the 
dates  assigned  by  English  authorities  on  costume  : 
thus,  knowing  not  of  Randle  Holme's  drawing, 
Sydney  writes  that  the  name  "campaign"  was  ap- 
plied to  a  wig,  the  name  and  fashion  of  which  came 
to  England  from  France  in  1702.  In  the  Letter- 
book  of  William  Byrd  of  Westover,  Virginia,  in 
a  letter  written  in  June,  1690,  to  Perry  and  Lane, 
his  English  factors  in  London,  he  says,  "  I  have 
by  Tonner  sent  my  long  Periwig  which  I  desire  you 
to  get  made  into  a  Campagne  and  send  mee."  This 
was  twelve  years  earlier  than  Sydney's  date.  Fitz- 
John  Winthrop  wrote  to  England  in  1695  f°r  "  two 
wiggs  one  a  campane  the  other  short."  The  por- 
trait of  Fitz-John  Winthrop  shows  a  prodigious  im- 
posing wig,  but  it  has  no  "  knots  or  bobs  a-dildo  on 
each  side,"  though  the  forehead  is  curled  ;  it  is  a 
fine  example  of  a  peruke. 

I  cannot  attempt  even  to  name  all  the  wigs,  much 
less  can  I  describe  them ;  Hawthorne  gave  "  the 
tie,"  the  "  Brigadier,"  the  "  Major,"  the  "  Ramillies," 
the  grave  "  Full-bottom,"  the  giddy  "  Feather-top." 
To  these  and  others  already  named  in  this  chapter 
I  can  add  the  "Neck-lock,"  the  "Allonge,"  the  "  La- 
vant,"  the  "Valiancy,"  the  "Grecian  fly  wig,"  the 
"  Beau-peruke,"  the  "  Long-tail,"  the  "  Fox-tail,"  the 
"Cut-wig,"  the  "Scratch,"  the  "Twist-wig." 

Others  named  in  1753  in  the  London  Magazine 
were    the    "  Royal    bird,"    the    "  Rhinoceros,"    the 


Perukes  and   Periwigs 


339 


"Corded  Wolf's-paw,"  "Count  Saxe's  mode,"  the 
"She-dragon,"  the  "Jansenist,"  the  "  Wild-boar's- 
back,"  the  "  Snail-back,"  the  "  Spinach-seed." 
These  titles  were  literal  translations  of  French 
wig-names. 

Another  wig-name  was  the  "  Gregorian."  We 
read  in  The  Honest  Ghost,  1658,  "  Pulling  a  little 
down  his  Gregorian,  which  was 
displac't  a  little  by  his  hastie 
taking  off  his  beaver."  Thiswig 
was  named  from  the  inventor, 
one  Gregory,  "  the  famous 
peruke-maker  who  is  buryed  at 
St.  Clements  Danes  Church." 
In  Cotgrave's  Dictionary  pe- 
rukes are  called  Gregorians. 

In  the  prologue  to  Haut 
Ton,  written  by  George  Col- 
man,  these  wigs  are  named  :  —  John  Rutiedge. 

"The  Tyburn  scratch,  thick  Club  and  Temple  tyes,    ' 
The  Parson's  Feather-top,  frizzed,  broad  and  high. 
The  coachman's  Cauliflower,  built  tier  on  tier." 


There  was  also  the  "  Minister's  bob,"  "  Curley 
roys,"  "Airy  levants,"  and  "I  —  perukes."  The 
"  Dalmahoy  "  was  a  bushy  bob-wig. 

When  Colonel  John  Carter  died,  he  left  to  his 
brother  Robert  his  cane,  sword,  and  periwig.  I 
believe  this  to  be  the  very  Valiancy  periwig  which, 
in  all  its  snowy  whiteness  and  air  of  extreme  fashion, 
graces  the  head  of  the  handsome  young  fellow  as  he 
is  shown  facing  page  212.      Even  the  portrait  shares 


34° 


Two  Centuries  of  Costu 


me 


the  fascination  which  the  man  is  said  to  have  had 
for  every  woman.  I  have  a  copy  of  it  now  standing 
on  my  desk,  where  I  can  glance  at  him  as  I  write  ; 
and  pleasant  company  have  I  found  the  gay  young 
Virginian  —  the  best  of   company.      It   is  good   to 


Campaign,  Ramillies,  Bob,  and  Pigtail  Wigs. 

have  a  companion  so  handsome  of  feature,  so  per- 
sonable of  figure,  so  laughing,  care  free,  and  debo- 
nair—  isn't  it,  King  Robert? 

These  snowy  wigs  at  a  later  date  were  called 
Adonis  wigs. 

The  cost  of  a  handsome  wig  would  sometimes 
amount  to  thirty,  forty,  and  fifty  guineas,  though 
Swift  grumbled  at  paying  three  guineas,  and  the  ex- 
ceedingly correct  Mr.  Pepys  bought  wigs  at  two  and 
three  pounds.  It  is  not  strange  that  they  were  often 
stolen.  Gay,  in  his  Trivia,  thus  tells  the  manner  of 
their  disappearance  :  — 

"  Nor  is  the  flaxen  wig  with  safety  worn  ; 
High  on  the  shoulder,  in  a  basket  borne, 
Lurks  the  sly  boy,  whose  hand  to  rapine  bred, 
Plucks  off  the  curling  honors  of  the  head." 


Perukes  and   Periwigs  341 

In  America  wigs  were  deemed  rich  spoils  for  the 
sneak-thief. 

There  was  a  vast  trade  in  second-hand  wigs.  'Tis 
said  there  was  in  Rosemary  Lane  in  London  a  con- 
stantly replenished  "Wig  lottery."  It  was,  rather, 
a  wig  grab-bag.  The  wreck  of  gentility  paid  his 
last  sixpence  for  appearances,  dipped  a  long  arm 
into  a  hole  in  a  cask,  and  fished  out  his  wig.  It 
might  be  half-decent,  or  it  might  be  fit  only  to 
polish  shoes  —  worse  yet,  it  might  have  been  used 
already  for  that  purpose.  The  lowest  depths  of 
everything  were  found  in  London.  I  doubt  if  we 
had  any  Rosemary  Lane  wig 
lotteries  in  New  York,  or 
Philadelphia,  or  Boston. 

An  answer  to  a  query  in  a 
modern  newspaper  gives  the 
word  "  caxon  "  as  descriptive 
of  a  dress-wig.  It  was  in  truth 
a  term  for  a  wig,  but  it  was  a 
cant  term,  a  slang  phrase  for 
the   worst   possible  wig ;    thus 


I'M 


Charles   Lamb  wrote  : Rev.  William  Welsteed. 

"  He  had  two  wigs  both  pedantic  but  of  different  omen. 
The  one  serene,  smiling,  fresh-powdered,  betokening  a 
mild  day.  The  other  an  old  discoloured,  unkempt,  angry 
caxon  denoting  frequent  and  bloody  execution." 

All  these  wigs,  even  the  bob-wig,  were  openly 
artificial.  The  manner  of  their  make,  their  bind- 
ings, their  fastening,  as  well  as  their  material,  com- 
pletely destroyed  any  illusion  which  could  possibly 


342  Two   Centuries  of  Costume 

have  been  entertained  as  to  their  being  a  luxuriant 
crop  of  natural  hair. 

No  one  was  ashamed  of  wearing  a  wig.  On  the 
contrary,  a  person  with  any  sense  of  dignity  was 
ashamed  of  being  so  unfashionable  as  to  wear  his 
own  hair.  It  was  a  glorious  time  for  those  to  whom 
Nature  had  been  niggardly.  A  wig  was  as  frankly 
extraneous  as  a  hat.  No  attempt  was  made  to  imi- 
tate the  roots  of  the  hairs,  or  the  parting.  The 
hair  was  attached  openly,  and  bound  with  a  high- 
colored,  narrow  ribbon.  Here  is  an  advertisement 
from  the  Boston  News  Letter  of  August  14,  1729  :  — 

"  Taken  from  the  shop  of  Powers  Mariott,  Barber,  a  light 
Flaxen  Natural  Wigg  parted  from  the  forehead  to  the 
Crown.  The  Narrow  Ribband  is  of  a  Red  Pink  Color, 
the  Caul  is  in    rows  of  Red,  Green   and  White  Ribband." 

Another  "peruke-maker  "lost  a  Flaxen  "Natural  " 
wig  bound  with  peach-colored  ribbon  ;  while  in  1755 
Barber  Coes,  of  Marblehead,  lost  "  feather-tops " 
bound  with  various  ribbons.  Some  had  three  colors 
on  one  wig  —  pink,  green  and  purple.  A  goat's- 
hair  wig  bound  with  red  and  purple,  with  green  rib- 
bons striping  the  caul,  must  have  been  a  pretty  and 
dignified  thing  on  an  old  gentleman's  head.  One 
of  the  most  curious  materials  for  a  wig  was  fine 
wire,  of  which  Wortley  Montague's  wig  was  made. 

We  read  in  many  histories  of  costume,  among 
them  Miss  Hill's  recent  history  of  English  dress, 
that  Quakers  did  not  wear  wigs.  This  is  widely 
incorrect.  Many  Quakers  wore  most  fashionably 
made  wigs.     William    Penn    wrote    from    England 


Thomas  Hopkinson. 


Perukes  and   Periwigs  343 

to  his  steward,  telling  him  to  allow  Deputy  Gov- 
ernor Lloyd  to  wear  his  (Penn's)  wigs.  I  suppose 
he  wished  his  deputy  to  cut  a  good  figure. 

From  the  New  York  Gazette  of  May  9,  1737,  we 
learn  of  a  thief's  stealing  "one  gray  Hair  Wig,  not 
the  worse  for  wearing,  one  Pale  Hair  Wig,  not  worn 
five  times,  marked  V.  S.  E.,  one  brown  Natural  wig, 
One  old  wig  of  goat's  hair  put  in  buckle."  Buckle 
meant  to  curl,  and  derivatively  a  wig  was  in  buckle 
when  it  was  rolled  for  curling.  Roulettes  or  bil- 
bouquettes  for  buckling  a  wig  were  little  rollers  of 
pipe  clay.  The  hair  was  twisted  up  in  them,  and 
papers  bound  over  them  to  fix  them  in  place.  The 
roulettes  could  be  put  in  buckle  hot,  or  they  could 
be  rolled  cold  and  the  whole  wig  heated.  The 
latter  was  not  favored  ;  it  damaged  the  wig.  More- 
over, a  careless  barber  had  often  roasted  a  for- 
gotten wig  which  he  had  put  in  buckle  and  in  an 
oven. 

The  New  York  Gazette  of  May  12,  1750,  had  this 
alluring  advertisement :  — 

"  This  is  to  acquaint  the  Public,  that  there  is  lately  ar- 
rived from  London  the  Wonder  of  the  World,  an  Honest 
Barber  and  Peruke  Maker,  who  might  have  worked  for  the 
King,  if  his  Majesty  would  have  employed  him  :  It  was 
not  for  the  want  of  Money  he  came  here,  for  he  had 
enough  of  that  at  Home,  nor  for  the  want  of  Business, 
that  he  advertises  himself,  BUT  to  acquaint  the  Gentlemen 
and  Ladies,  that  Such  a  Person  is  noiu  in  Toiun,  living  near 
Rosemary  Lane  where  Gentlemen  and  Ladies  may  be  sup- 
plied with  Goods  as  follows,  viz.  :  Tyes,  Full-Bottoms, 
Majors,  Spencers,  Fox-Tails,  Ramalies,  Tacks,  cut  and  bob 


344 


Two   Centuries  of  Costume 


Perukes:    Also  Ladies  Tatematongucs  and  Towers  after  the 

Manner  that    is   now  wore  at  Court,      By  their  Humble  and 

Obedient  Servant.  ,,  ,  .,  ,, 

"John  Still. 

"  Perukes,"  says  Malcolm,  in  his  Manners  and 
Customs,"  were  an  highly  important  article  in  1734." 
Those  of  right  gray  human  hair  were  four  guineas 
each ;  light  grizzle  ties,  three  guineas ;  and  other 
colors  in  proportion,  to  twenty-five  shillings.  Right 
gray  human  hair  cue  pe- 
rukes, from  two  guineas  to 
fifteen  shillings  each,  was  the 
price  of  dark  ones  ;  and  right 
gray  bob  perukes,  two  guin- 
eas and  a  half  to  fifteen 
shillings,  the  price  of  dark 
bobs.  Those  mixed  with 
horsehair  were  much  lower. 
Prices  were  a  bit  higher 
in  America.  It  was  held 
that  better  wigs  were  made  in  England  than  in 
America  or  France  ;  so  the  letter-books  and  agent's- 
lists  of  American  merchants  are  filled  with  orders 
for  English  wigs. 

Imperative  orders  for  tfre  earliest  and  extremest 
new  fashions  stood  from  year  to  year  on  the  lists  of 
fashionable  London  wig-makers  ;  and  these  constant 
orders  came  from  Virginia  gentlemen  and  Massa- 
chusetts magistrates,  —  not  a  few,  too,  from  the  par- 
sons,—  scantly  paid  as  they  were.  The  smaller 
bob-wigs  and  tie-wigs  were  precisely  the  same  in 
both    countries,    and    I    am    sure    were    no    later   in 


Reverend  Dr.  Barnard. 


Perukes  and   Periwigs  345 

assumption  in  America  than  was  necessitated  by  the 
weeks  occupied  in  coming  across  seas. 

Throughout  the  seventeenth  century  all  classes  of 
men  in  American  towns  wore  wigs.  Negro  slaves 
flaunted  white  horsehair  wigs,  goat's-hair  bob-wigs, 
natural  wigs,  all  the  plainer  wigs,  and  all  the  more 
costly  sorts  when  these  were  half  worn  and  second- 
hand. Soldiers  wore  wigs  ;  and  in  the  Massachusetts 
Gazette  of  the  year  1774  a  runaway  negro  is  de- 
scribed as  wearing  a  curl  of  hair  tied  around  his  head 
to  imitate  a  scratch  wig;  with  his  woolly  crown  this 
dangling  curl  must  have  been  the  height  of  absurdity. 

It  is  not  surprising  to  find  in  the  formal  life  of  the 
English  court  the  poor  little  tormented,  sickly,  sad 
child  of  Queen  Anne  wearing,  before  he  was  seven 
years  old,  a  large  full-bottomed  wig ;  but  it  is 
curious  to  see  the  portraits  of  American  children 
rigged  up  in  wigs  (I  have  half  a  dozen  such),  and 
to  find  likewise  an  American  gentleman  (and  not 
one  of  wealth  either)  paying  ^9  apiece  for  wigs  for 
three  little  sons  of  seven,  nine,  and  eleven  years  of 
age.  This  lavish  parent  was  Enoch  Freeman,  who 
lived  in  Portland,  Maine,  in  1754. 

Wigs  were  objects  of  much  and  constant  solicitude 
and  care ;  their  dressing  was  costly,  and  they  wore 
out  readily.  Barbers  cared  for  them  by  the  month 
or  year,  visiting  from  house  to  house.  Ten  pounds 
a  year  was  not  a  large  sum  to  be  paid  for  the  care  of 
a  single  wig.  Men  of  dignity  and  careful  dress  had 
barbers'  bills  of  large  amount,  such  men  as  Governor 
John  Hancock,  Governor  Hutchinson,  and  Gov- 
ernor Belcher.     On  Saturdav  afternoons  the  barbers' 


346  Two   Centuries   of  Costume 

boys  were  seen  flying  through  the  narrow  streets, 
wig-box  in  hand,  hurrying  to  deliver  all  the  dressed 
wigs  ere  sunset  came. 

No  doubt  the  constant  wearing  of  such  hot, 
heavy  head-covering  made  the  hair  thin  and  the 
head  bald;  thus  wigs  became  a  necessity.  Men 
had  their  heads  very  closely  covered  of  old,  and 
caught  cold  at  a  breath.  Pepys  took  cold  throwing 
off  his  hat  while  at  dinner.  If  the  wig  were  re- 
moved even  within  doors  a  close  cap  or  hood  at 
once  took  its  place,  or,  as  I  tell  elsewhere,  a  turban 
of  some  rich  stuff".  In  America,  in  the  Southern 
states,  where  people  were  poor  and  plantations 
scattered,  all  men  did  not  wear  wigs.  A  writer 
in  the  London  Magazine  in  1745  tells  of  this 
country  carelessness  of  dress.  He  says  that  except 
some  of  the  "  very  Elevated  Sort "  few  wore 
perukes ;  so  that  at  first  sight  "  all  looked  as  if 
about  to  go  to  bed,"  for  all  wore  caps.  Com- 
mon people  wore  woollen  caps  ;  richer  ones  donned 
caps  of  white  cotton  or  Holland  linen.  These  were 
worn  even  when  riding  fifty  miles  from  home.  He 
adds,  "  It  may  be  cooler  for  aught  I  know ;  but  me- 
thinks  'tis  very  ridiculous."  So  wonted  were  his  eyes 
to  perukes,  that  his  only  thought  of  caps  was  that 
they  were  "ridiculous."  Nevertheless,  when  a  ship- 
load of  servants,  bond-servants  who  might  be  stolen 
when  in  drink,  or  lured  under  false  pretences,  might 
be  convicts,  or  honest  workmen,  —  when  these  trans- 
ports were  set  up  in  respectability,  —  scores  of  new 
wigs  of  varying  degrees  of  dignity  came  across  seas 
with  them.      Many  an  old  caxon  or  "  gossoon  "  —  a 


Perukes  and   Periwigs 


347 


wig  worn  yellow  with  age  —  ended  its  days  on  the 
pate  of  a  redemptioner,  who  thereby  acquired  dignity 
and  was  more  likely  to  be  bought  as  a  schoolmaster. 
Truly  our  ancestors  were  not  squeamish,  and  it  is 
well  they  were  not,  else  they  would  have  squeamed 
from  morning  till  night  at  the  sights,  and  sounds, 
and  things,  and  dirt  around  them.  But  these  be 
parlous  words  ;  they  had  the  senses  and  feelings  of 
their  day  —  suited  to  the  surroundings  of  their  day. 
In  one  thing  they  can  be 
envied.  Knowing  not  of 
germs  and  microbes,  dream- 
ing not  of  antiseptics  and 
fumigation,  they  could  be 
happy  in  blissful  uncon- 
sciousness of  menacing 
environment  —  a  blessing 
wholly  denied  to  us. 

When  James  Murray 
came  from  Scotland  in 
1735  he  went  up  the  Cape 
Fear  River  in  North  Caro- 
lina to  the  struggling  settlements  of  Brunswick. 
The  s-tock  of  wigs  which  he  brought  as  one  of  the 
commodities  of  his  trade  had  absolutely  no  market. 
In  1751  he  wrote  thus  to  his  London  wig-maker  :  — 


Andrew  Ellicott. 


"  We  deal  so  much  in  caps  in  this  country  that  we  are 
almost  as  careless  of  the  outside  as  of  the  inside  of  our 
heads.  I  have  had  but  one  wig  since  the  last  I  had  of  you, 
and  yours  has  outworn  it.  Now  I  am  near  out,  and  you 
may  make  me  a  new  grisel  Bob." 


348  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

Nevertheless, in  1769,  when  he  was  roughly  handled 
in  Boston  on  account  of  his  Tory  utterances,  his 
head,  though  he  was  but  fifty-six,  was  bald  from  wig- 
wearing.      His  spirited  recital  runs  thus:  — 

"  The  crowd  intending  sport,  remained.  As  I  was  press- 
ing out,  my  Wig  was  pulled  off  and  a  pate  shaved  by  Time 
and  the  barber  was  left  exposed.  This  was  thought  a  signal 
and  prelude  to  further  insult ;  which  would  probably  have 
taken  place  but  for  hindering  the  cause.  Going  along  in 
this  plight,  surrounded  by  the  crowd,  in  the  dark,  a  friend 
hold  of  either  arm  supporting  me,  while  somebody  behind 
kept  nibbling  at  my  sides  and  endeavouring  of  creading  the 
reforming  justice  out  of  me  by  the  multitude.  My  wig 
dishevelled,  was  borne  on  a  staff  behind.  My  friends  and 
supporters  offered  to  house  me,  but  I  insisted  on  going  home 
in  the  present  trim,  and  was  landed  in  safety." 

Patriotic  Boston  barbers  found  much  satisfaction 
in  ill  treating  the  wigs  of  their  Tory  customers  and 
patrons.  William  Pyncheon,  a  Salem  Tory,  wrote 
a  few  years  later  :  — 

"  The  tailors  and  barbers,  in  their  squinting  and  fleering 
at  our  clothes,  and  especially  our  wiggs,  begin  to  border  on 
malevolence.  Had  not  the  caul  of  my  wigg  been  of  un- 
common stuff  and  workmanship,  I  think  my  barber  would 
have  had  it  in  pieces  :  his  dressing  it  greatly  resembles  the 
farmer  dressing  his  flax,  the  latter  of  the  two  being  the 
gentlest  in  his  motions." 

Worcester  Tories,  among  them  Timothy  Paine, 
had  their  wigs  pulled  off  in  public.  Mr.  Paine 
at  once  gave  his  dishonored  wig  to  one  of  his  negro 
slaves,  and  never  after  resumed  wig-wearing. 


CHAPTER    XII 

THE    BEARD 

"  Though  yours  be  sorely  lugg'd  and  torn 
It  does  your  Visage  more  adorn 

Than  if  'twere  prun'd,  and  starch' 'd,  and  launder  d 
And  cut  square  by  the  Russian  standard.''' 

—  "  Hudibras,"  Samuel  Butler. 


Now  of  beards  there  be  such  company 
And  fashions  such  a  throng 

That  it  is  very  hard  to  handle  a  beard 
Tho'  it  be  never  so  long. 

'  Tis  a  pretty  sight  and  a  grave  delight 
That  adorns  both  young  and  old 

A  well  thatch' t  face  is  a  comely  grace 
And  a  shelter  from  the  cold." 


CHAPTER   XII 

THE    BEARD 

EN'S  hair  on  their  heads  hath  ever 
been  at  odds  with  that  on  their  face. 
If  the  head  were  well  covered  and  the 
hair  long,  then  the  face  was  smooth 
shaven.  William  the  Conqueror  had 
short  hair  and  a  beard,  then  came  a 
long-haired  king,  then  a  cropped  one ;  Edward 
IV's  subjects  had  long  hair  and  closely  cut  beards. 
Henry  VII  fiercely  forbade  beards.  The  great 
sovereign  Henry  VIII  ordered  short  hair  like  the 
French,  and  wore  a  beard.  Through  Elizabeth's 
day  and  that  of  James  the  beard  continued.  Not 
until  great  perukes  overshadowed  the  whole  face 
did  the  beard  disappear.  It  vanished  for  a  century 
as  if  men  were  beardless  ;  but  after  men  began  to 
wear  short  hair  in  the  early  years  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  bearded  men  appeared.  A  few  German 
mystics  who  had  come  to  America  full-bearded 
were  stared  at  like  the  elephant,  and  a  sight  of 
them  was  recorded  in  a  diary  as  a  great  event. 

There  is  no  doubt  that,  to  the  general  reader,  the 

ordinary  thought  of  the  Puritan  is  with  a  beard,  a 

face  and  figure  much  like  the  Hogarth  illustrations 

of  Hudibras  —  one  of  the  "  Presbyterian  true  Blue," 

351 


35* 


Two  Centuries  of  Costume 


"the  stubborn  crew  of  Errant  Saints,"  —  without 
the  grotesquery  of  face  and  feature,  perhaps,  but 
certainly  with  all  the  plainness  and  gracelessness  of 


Herbert  Westphaling,  Bishop  of  Hereford. 

dress  and  the  commonplace  beard.      The  wording 
of  Hudibras  also  figures  the  popular  conception  :  — 

"  His  tawny  Beard  was  th'  equal  Grace 
Both  of  his  Wisdom  and  his  Face  : 


His  Doublet  was  of  sturdy  Buff 
And  tho'  not  Sword,  was  Cudgel-Proof. 
His  Breeches  were  of  rugged  Woolen 
And  had  been  at  the  Siege  of  Bullen." 


The  Beard  353 

In  truth  this  is  well  enough  as  far  as  it  runs  and 
for  one  suit  of  clothing;  but  this  was  by  no  means 
a  universal  dress,  nor  was  it  a  universal  beard.  In- 
deed beards  were  fearfully  and  wonderfully  varied. 

That  humorous  old  rhymester,  Taylor,  the 
"Water  Poet,"  may  be  quoted  at  length  on  the 
vanity  thus  :  — 

"And  Some,  to  set  their  Love's-Desire  on  Edge 
Are  cut  and  prun'd,  like  to  a  Quickset  Hedge. 
Some  like  a  Spade,  some  like  a  Forke,  some  square, 
Some  round,  some  mow'd  like  stubble,  some  starke  bare  ; 
Some  sharpe,  Stilletto-fashion,  Dagger-like, 
That  may  with  Whispering  a  Man's  Eyes  unpike  ; 
Some  with  the  Hammer-cut,  or  Roman  T. 
Their  Beards  extravagant,  reform 'd  must  be. 
Some  with  the  Ouadrate,  some  Triangle  fashion  ; 
Some  circular,  some  ovall  in  translation  ; 
Some  Perpendicular  in  Longitude, 
Some  like  a  Thicket  for  their  Crassitude, 

That  Heights,  Depths,  Breadths,  Triform,  Square,  Ovall,  Round 
And  Rules  Geometrical  in  Beards  are  found." 

Taylor's  own  beard  was  screw-shaped.  I  fancy 
he  invented  it. 

The  Anglo-Saxon  beard  was  parted,  and  this  double 
form  remained  for  a  long  time.  Sometimes  there 
were  two  twists  or  two  long  forks. 

A  curious  pointed  beard,  a  beard  in  two  curls,  is 
shown  on  page  225,  on  James  Douglas,  Earl  of 
Morton.  A  still  more  strangely  kept  one,  pointed 
in  the  middle  of  the  chin,  and  kept  in  two  rolls  which 
roll  toward  the  front,  is  upon  the  aged  herald,  on 

Page.  354- 

Richard  II   had  a  mean  beard,  —  two  little  tufts 

VOL.  I  —  2  A 


354 


Two  Centuries  of  Costume 


on  the  chin  known  as  "  the  mouse-eaten  beard,  here 
a  tuft,  there  a  tuft."  The  round  beard  "  like  a  half 
a  Holland  cheese  "  is  always  seen  in  the  depictions 
of  FalstafF;  "  a  great  round  beard  "  we  know  he 
had.  This  was  easily  trimmed,  but  others  took  so 
much  time  and  attention  that  pasteboard  boxes  were 

made  to  tie  over  them 
at  night,  that  they 
might  be  unrumpled  in 
the  morning. 

In  the  reign  of  Eliza- 
beth and  of  James  I  a 
beard  and  whiskers  or 
mustache  were  univer- 
sally worn.  In  the 
time  of  Charles  I  the 
general  effect  of  beard 
and  mustache  was  trian- 
gular, with  the  mouth 
in  the  centre,  as  in  the 
portrait  of  Waller  on 
page  37. 

A  beard  of  some  form  was  certainly  universal  in 
1620.  Often  it  was  the  orderly  natural  growth  shown 
on  Winthrop's  face  ;  a  smaller  tuft  on  the  chin  with 
a  mustache  also  was  much  worn.  Many  ministers 
in  America  had  this  chin-tuft.  Among  them  were 
John  Eliot  and  John  Davenport.  The  Stuarts  wore 
a  pointed  beard,  carefully  trimmed,  and  a  mustache; 
but  the  natural  beard  seems  to  have  disappeared  with 
the  ruff.  Charles  II  clung  for  a  time  to  a  mustache  ; 
his  portrait  by  Mary  Beale  has  one  ;  but  with  the 


The  Herald  Vandum. 


The   Beard  355 

great  development  of  the  periwig  came  a  smooth 
face.  This  continued  until  the  nineteenth  century 
brought  a  fashion  of  bearded  men  again  ;  a  fashion 
which  was  so  abhorred,  so  reviled,  so  openly  warred 
with  that  I  know  of  the  bequest  of  a  large  estate  with 
the  absolute  and  irrevocable  condition  that  the  in- 
heritor should  never  wear  a  beard  of  any  form. 

The  hammer  cut  was  of  the  reign  of  Charles  I. 
It  was  T-shaped.  In  the  play,  The  Queen  of 
Corinth,   1647,  are  the  lines:  — 

"  He  strokes  his  beard 
Which  now  he  puts  in  the  posture  of  a  T, 
The  Roman  T.      Your  T-beard  is  in  fashion." 

The  spade  beard  is  shown  on  page  356.  It  was 
called  the  "  broad  pendant,"  and  was  held  to  make 
a  man  look  like  a  warrior.  The  sugar-loaf  beard 
was  the  natural  form  much  worn  by  Puritans ;  by 
natural  I  mean  not  twisted  into  any  "strange  antic 
forms."  The  swallow-tail  cut  (about  1600)  is  more 
unusual,  but  was  occasionally  seen. 

"  The  stiletto-beard 
It  makes  me  afeard 

It  is  so  sharp  beneath. 
For  he  that  doth  place 
A  dagger  in  his  face 

What  wears  he  in  his  sheath  ?  " 

An  unusually  fine  stiletto  beard  is  on  the  chin  of 
John  Endicott  (page  5).  It  was  distinctly  a  soldier's 
beard.  Endicott  was  major-general  of  the  colonial 
forces   and   a  severe  disciplinarian.      Shakespere,  in 


356 


Two  Centuries  of  Costume 


Henry  V,  speaks  of  "  a  beard  of  the  General's  cut." 
It  was  worn  by  the  Earl  of  Southampton  (see  facing 
page  190),  and  perhaps  Kndicott  favored  it  on  that 
account.  The  pique-devant  beard  or  "  pick-a-devant 
beard,  O  Fine  Fashion,"  was  much  worn.  A  good 
moderate  example  may  be  seen  upon  Cousin  Kilvert, 
with  doublet  and  band,  in  the 
print  on  page  41.  An  extreme 
type  was  the  beard  of  Rob- 
ert Greene,  the  Elizabethan 
dramatist,  "A  jolly  long  red 
peake  like  the  spire  of  a  steeple, 
which  he  wore  continually, 
whereat  a  man  might  hang  a 
jewell ;  it  was  so  sharp  and 
pendent." 

was  constantly  used  for  a  beard, 
and  "spear."    A  barber  is 


Scotch  Beard. 


The  word  "peak 
and  also  the  words  "spike' 

represented  in  an  old  play  as  asking  whether  his  cus- 
tomer will  "have  his  peak  cut  short  and  sharp;  or 
amiable  like  an  inamorato,  or  broad  pendant  like  a 
spade  ;  to  be  terrible  like  a  warrior  and  a  soldado  ; 
to  have  his  appendices  primed,  or  his  mustachios 
fostered  to  turn  about  his  eares  like  ye  branches  of 
a  vine." 

A  broad  square-cut  beard  spreading  at  the  ends 
like  an  open  fan  is  the  "cathedral  beard"  of  Randle 
Holme,  "  so  called  because  grave  men  of  the  church 
did  wear  it."  It  is  often  seen  in  portraits.  One 
of  these  is  shown  on  page  357. 

In  the  Life  of  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Thomas,  173 1,  she 
writes  of  her  grandfather,  a  Turkey-merchant :  — 


The  Beard 


357 


"  He  was  very  nice  in 
the  Mode  of  his  Age  — 
his  Valet  being  some  hours 
every  morning  in  Starching 
his  Beard  and  Curling  his 
Whiskers  during  which 
Time  a  Gentleman  whom 
he  maintain'd  as  Compan- 
ion always  read  to  him  upon 
some  useful  subject." 

So  we  may  believe 
they  really  "  starched  " 
their  beards,  stiffened 
them  with  some  dressing. 
Taylor,  the  "Water  Poet  "  (1640),  says  of  beards 

"  Some  seem  as  they  were  starched  stiff  and  fine 
Like  to  the  Bristles  of  some  Angry  Swine." 


Dr.  William  Slater. 
Cathedral  Beard. 


Dr.  John  Dee.      1600. 


Dr.  Dee's  extraordinary  beard 
I  can  but  regard  as  an  affecta- 
tion of  singularity,  assumed 
doubtless  to  attract  attention, 
and  to  be  a  sign  of  unusual 
parts.  Aubrey,  his  friend,  calls 
him  "  a  very  handsome  man  ; 
of  very  fair,  clear,  sanguine  com- 
plexion, with  a  long  beard  as 
white  as  milke.  He  was  tall 
and  slender.  He  wore  a  gowne 
like  an  artist's  gowne ;  with 
hanging  sleeves  and  a  slitt.  A 
mighty  good  man  he  was."   The 


358  Two   Centuries   of   Costume 

wort]  lt  artist  "  then  meant  artisan  ;  and  in  this  refer- 
ence  means  a  smock  like  a  workman's. 

A  name  seen  often  in  Winthrop's  letters  is  that 
of  Sir  Kenelm  Digby.  He  was  an  intimate  corre- 
spondent of  John  Winthrop  the  second,  and  it 
would  not  he  strange  if  he  did  many  errands  for 
Winthrop  in  England  besides  purchasing  drugs. 
His  portrait,  and  a  lugubrious  one  it  is,  is  one  of 
the  tew  or  his  day  which  shows  an  untrimmed 
beard.  Aubrey  says  of  him  that  after  the  death  of 
his  wife  he  wore  "a  long  mourning  cloak,  a  high 
cornered  hatt,  his  beard  unshorn,  look't  like  a 
hermit ;  as  signs  of  sorrow  for  his  beloved  wife. 
He  had  something  of  the  sweetness  of  his  mother's 
face."  This  sweetness  is,  however,  not  to  be  per- 
ceived in  his  unattractive  portrait. 


CHAPTER    XIII 

PATTENS,    CLOGS,    AND    GOLOE-SHOES 

"  ^.      Why  is  a  Wife  like  a  Patten  ? 
A.      Both  are  Clogs" 

—  Old  Riddle. 


CHAPTER    XIII 

PATTENS,    CLOGS,    AND    GOLOE-SHOES 

HEN  this  old  pigskin  trunk  was  new, 
the  men  who  fought  in  the  Revolution 
were  young.  Here  is  the  date,  "  1756," 
and  the  initials  in  brass-headed  nails, 
"J.  E.  H."  It  was  a  bride's  trunk,  the 
trunk  of  Elizabeth,  who  married  John  ;  and  it  was 
marked  after  the  manner  of  marking  the  belongings 
of  married  folk  in  her  day.  It  is  curious  in  shape, 
spreading  out  wide  at  the  top  ;  for  it  was  made  to 
fit  a  special  place  in  an  old  coach.  I  have  told  the 
story  of  that  ancient  coach  in  my  Old  Narragansett : 
the  tale  of  the  ignoble  end  of  its  days,  the  account 
of  its  fall  from  transportation  of  this  happy  bride 
and  bridegroom,  through  years  of  stately  use  and 
formal  dignity  to  more  years  of  happy  desuetude 
as  a  children's  cubby-house  ;  and  finally  its  ignominy 
as  a  roosting-place,  and  hiding-place,  and  laying- 
place,  and  setting-place  of  misinformed  and  mis- 
guided hens.  Under  the  coachman's  seat,  where 
the  two-score  dark-blue  Staffordshire  pie-plates  were 
found  on  the  day  of  the  annihilation  of  the  coach, 
was  the  true  resting-place  of  this  trunk.  It  was 
a  hidden  spot,  for  the  trunk  was  small,  and  was 
intended  to  hold  only  treasures.  It  holds  them 
361 


362  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

still,  though  they  are  not  the  silver-plate,  the  round 
watches,  the  narrow  laces,  and  the  precious  cameFs- 
hair  scarf.  It  now  holds  treasured  relics  of  the  olden 
time;  trifles,  but  not  unconsidered  ones;  much  es- 
teemed trifles  are  they,  albeit  not  in  form  or  shape 
or  manner  of  being  fit  to  rest  in  parlor  cabinets  or 
on  tables,  but  valued,  nevertheless,  valued  for  that 
most  intangible  of  qualities  —  association. 


Iron  and  Leather  Pattens.      1760. 

Here  is  one  little  "antick."  It  is  an  ample  bag 
with  the  neat  double  drawing-strings  of  our  youth  ; 
a  bag,  nay,  a  pocket.  It  once  hung  by  the  side  of 
some  one  of  my  forbears,  perhaps  Elizabeth  of  the 
brass-nailed  initials.  It  was  a  much-esteemed  pocket, 
though  it  is  only  of  figured  cotton  or  chiney  ;  but 
those  stuffs  were  much  sought  after  when  this  old 
trunk  was  new.  The  pocket  has  served  during 
recent  years  as  a  cover  for  two  articles  of  footwear 
which  many  "of  the  younger  sort"  to-day  have 
never  seen  —  they  are  pattens.  "Clumsy,  ugly 
pattens  "  we  find  them  frequently  stigmatized  in  the 


Pattens,  Clogs,  and  Goloe-shoes  363 

severe  words  of  the  early  years  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  but  there  is  nothing  ugly  or  clumsy  about 
this  pair.  The  sole  is  of  some  black,  polished 
wood  —  it  is  heavy  enough  for  ebony;  the  straps 
are  of  strong  leather  neatly  stitched ;  the  buckles 
are  polished  brass,  and  brass  nails  fasten  the  leather 
to  the  wooden  soles.  These  soles  are  cut  up  high 
in  a  ridge  to  fit  under  the  instep  of  a  high-heeled 


Oak,  Iron,  and  Leather  Clogs.    1790. 

shoe  ;  for  it  was  a  very  little  lady  who  wore  these 
pattens, —  Elizabeth,  —  and  her  little  feet  always 
stood  in  the  highest  heels.  She  was  active,  kindly, 
and  bountiful.  She  lived  to  great  age,  and  she  could 
and  did  walk  many  miles  a  day  until  the  last  year 
of  her  life.  She  is  recalled  as  wearing  a  great  scarlet 
cloak  with  a  black  silk  quilted  hood  on  cold  winter 
days,  when  she  visited  her  neighbors  with  kindly 
words,  and  housewjfely,  homely  gifts,  conveyed  in 
an  ample  basket.  The  cloak  was  made  precisely 
like  the  scarlet  cloak  shown  facing  page  258,  and  had 
a  like  hood.     She  was  brown-eyed,  and    her   dark 


364  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

hair  was  never  gray  even  in  extreme  old  age;  nor 
was  the  hair  of  her  granddaughter,  another  Eliza- 
beth, my  grandmother.  Trim  and  erect  of  figure, 
and  precise  and  neat  of  dress,  wearing,  on  account 
of  this  neatness,  shorter  petticoats,  when  walking, 
than  was  the  mode  of  her  day,  and  also  through 
this  neatness  clinging  to  the  very  last  to  these 
cleanly,  useful,  quaint  pattens.  Her  black  hood, 
frilled  white  cap,  short,  quilted  petticoat,  high-heeled 
shoes,  and  the  shining  ebony  and  brass  pattens, 
and  over  all  the  great,  full  scarlet  cloak,  —  all  these 
made  her  an  unusual  and  striking  figure  against  the 
Wayland  landscape,  the  snowy  fields  and  great 
sombre  pine  trees  of  Heard's  Island,  as  she  trod 
trimly,  in  short  pattened.  steps  that  crackled  the 
kittly-benders  in  the  shadowed  roads,  or  sunk  softly 
in  the  shallow  mud  of  the  sunny  lanes  on  a  snow- 
melting  day  in  late  winter.  Would  I  could  paint 
the  picture  as  I  see  it ! 

These  pattens  in  the  old  trunk  are  prettier  than 
most  pattens  which  have  been  preserved.  In  gen- 
eral, they  are  rather  shabby  things.  I  have  another 
pair  —  more  commonplace,  which  chance  to  exist; 
they  were  not  saved  purposely.  They  are  pictured 
on  page  362. 

There  is  a  most  ungallant  old  riddle,  "  Why  is  a 
wife  like  a  patten  ?  "  The  answer  reads,  "  Because 
both  are  clogs."  A  very  courteous  bishop  was  once 
asked  this  uncivil  query,  and  he  answered  without 
a  moment's  hesitation,  "  Because  both  elevate  the 
soul  (sole)."  Pattens  may  be  clogs,  yet  there  is  a 
difference.       After    much    consultation    of    various 


Pattens,   Clogs,  and  Goloe-shoes  36$ 

authorities,  and  much  discussion  in  the  columns 
of  various  querying  journals,  I  make  this  decision 
and  definition.  Pattens  are  thick,  wooden  soles 
roughly  shaped  in  the  outline  of  the  human  foot  (in 
the  shoemaker's  notion  of  that  member),  mounted 


English  Clogs. 

on  a  round  or  oval  ring  of  iron,  fixed  by  two  or 
three  pins  to  the  sole,  in  such  a  way  that  when  the 
patten  is  worn  the  sole  of  the  wearer's  foot  is  about 
two  inches  above  the  ground.  A  heel-piece  with 
buckles  and  straps,  strings  or  buttons  and  leather 
loops,  and  a  strap  over  the  toe,  retain  the  patten 
in  place  upon  the  foot  when  the  wearer  trips  along. 
(See  page  362.)  Clogs  serve  the  same  purpose,  but 
are  simply  wooden  soles  tipped  and  shod  with  iron. 
These  also  have  heel-pieces  and  straps  of  various 
materials  —  from  the  heavy  serviceable  leather  shown 
in  the  clogs  on  pages  363  and  36$  to  the  fine  brocade 
clogs  made  and  worn  by  two  brides  and  pictured  on 
page  368.  Dainty  brass  tips  and  colored  morocco 
straps  made  a  really  refined  pair  of  clogs.  Poplar 
wood  was  deemed  the  best  wood  for  pattens  and 
clogs.      Sometimes   the  wooden  sole  was   thin,  and 


366  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

was  cut  at  the  line  under  the  instep  in  two  pieces 
and  hinged.  These  hinges  were  held  to  facilitate 
walking.  Children  also  wore  clogs.  (See  page 
370.)  Clogs,  as  worn  by  English  and  American 
folk,  did  not  raise  the  wearer  as  high  above  the 
mud  and  mire  as  did  pattens,  but  1  have  seen 
Turkish  clogs  that  were  ten  inches  high.  Chopines 
were  worn  by  Englishwomen  to  make  them  look 
taller.  Three  are  shown  on  page  367.  Lady  Falk- 
land was  short  and  stout,  and  wore  them  for  years 
to  increase  her  apparent  height;  so  she  states  in  her 
memoirs. 

It  is  a  curious  philological  study  that,  while  the 
words  "clogs  "  and  "pattens"  for  a  time  were  con- 
stantly heard,  the  third  name  which  has  survived 
till  to-day  is  the  oldest  of  all — "galoshes."  Under 
the  many  spellings,  galoe-shoes,  goloshes,  gallage, 
galoche,  and  gallosh,  it  has  come  down  to  us  from 
the  Middle  Ages.  It  is  spelt  galoches  in  Piers  Plow- 
man. In  a  Compotus  or  household  account  of  the 
Countess  of  Derby  in  1388  are  entries  of  botews 
(boots),  souters  (slippers),  and  "  one  pair  of  galoches, 
14  d."  Clogs,  or  galoches,  were  known  in  the  days 
of  the  Saxons,  when  they  were  termed  "  wife's 
shoes." 

A  "galage"  was  a  shoe  "which  has  nothing  on 
the  feet  but  a  latchet";  it  was  simply  a  clog.  In 
February,  1687,  Judge  Sewall  notes,  "Send  my 
mothers  Shoes  &  Golowshoes  to  carry  to  her."  In 
1736  Peter  Faneuil  sent  to  England  for  "  Galou- 
shoes  "  for  his  sister.  Another  foot-covering  for 
slippery,  icy  walking    is    named    by  Judge  Sewall. 


Pattens,  Clogs,  and  Goloe-shoes  367 

He  wrote  on  January  19,  17 1 7,  "Great  rain  and 
very  Slippery;  was  fain  to  wear  Frosts."  These 
frosts  were  what  had  been  called  on  horses,  "  frost 
nails,"  or  calks.  They  were  simply  spiked  soles 
to  help  the  wearer  to  walk  on  ice.  A  pair  may 
be  seen  at  the  Deerfleld  Memorial  Hall.  An- 
other pair  is  of  half-soles  with  sharp  ridges  of 
iron,  set,  one  the  length  of  the  half-sole,  the  other 
across  it. 

For  a  time  clogs  seem  to  have  been  in  constant 
use   in  America ;    frail    morocco    slippers   and   thin 


Chopines,  Seventeenth  Century.     In  the  Ashmolean  Museum. 

prunella  and  callimanco  shoes  made  them  necessary, 
as  did  also  the  unpaved  streets.  Fleavy-soled  shoes 
were  unknown  for  women's  wear.  Women  walked 
but  short  distances.  In  the  country  they  always 
rode.  We  find  even  Quaker  women  warned  in 
1720  not  to  wear  "Shoes  of  light  Colours  bound 
with  Differing  Colours,  and  heels  White  or  Red, 
with  White  bands,  and  fine  Coloured  Clogs  and 
Strings,  and  Scarlet  and  Purple  Stockings  and 
Petticoats  made  Short  to  expose  them"  —  a  rather 
startling  description  of  footwear.  Again,  in  1726, 
in  Burlington,  New  Jersey,  Friends  were  asked  to 
be  "  careful    to   avoid  wearing  of  Stript  Shoos,  or 


368 


Two  Centuries  of  Costume 


Red    and  White   Heel'd   Shoos,  or  Clogs,  or  Shoos 
trimmed  with  Gawdy  Colours." 

Ann  Warder,  an  English  Quaker,  was  in  Phila- 
delphia, 17S6  to  1789,  and  kept  an  entertaining 
journal,  from  which  1  make  this  quotation:  — 

"Got  B.  Parker  to  go  out  shopping  with  me.  On  our 
way  happened  of  Uncle  Head,  to  whom  I  complained 
bitterly  of  the  dirty  streets,  declaring  if  I  could  purchase  a 


Brides'  Clogs  of  Brocade  and  Sole  Leather. 

pair  of  pattens,  the  singularity  I  would  not  mind.  Uncle 
soon  found  me  up  an  apartment,  out  of  which  I  took  a  pair 
and  trotted  along  quite  Comfortable,  crossing  some  streets 
with  the  greatest  ease,  which  the  idea  of  had  troubled  me. 
My  little  companion  was  so  pleased,  that  she  wished  some 
also,  and  kept  them  on  her  feet  to  learn  to  walk  in  them 
most  of  the  remainder  of  the  day." 

Fairholt,  in  his  book  upon  costume,  says,  "  Pattens 
date  their  origin  to  the  reign  of  Anne."  Like  many 
other  dates  and  statements  given  by  this  author,  this 
is  wholly  wrong.      In  Pure has\  his  Pilgrimage^  16 13, 


Pattens,  Clogs,  and  Goloe-shoes  369 


is  this  sentence,  "  Clogges  or  Pattens  to  keep  them 
out  of  the  dust  they  may  not  burden  themselves 
with,"  showing  that  the 
name  and  thing  was  the 
same  then  as  to-day. 

Charles  Dibdin  has 
a  song  entitled,  The 
Origin  of  the  Patten. 
Fair  Patty  went  out  in 
the  mud  and  the  mire, 

and      her      thin      shoes         Clogs  of  "  Pennsylvania  Dutch." 

speedily  were  wet.  Then  she  became  hoarse  and 
could  not  sing,  while  her  lover  longed  for  the  sweet 
sound  of  her  voice. 

"  My  anvil  glow'd,  my  hammer  rang, 
Till  I  had  form'd  from  out  the  fire 
To  bear  her  feet  above  the  mire, 

A  platform  for  my  blue-eyed  Patty. 
Again  was  heard  each  tuneful  close, 
My  fair  one  in  the  patten  rose, 

Which  takes  its  name  from  blue-eyed  Patty." 

This  fanciful  derivation  of  the  word  was  not  an 
original    thought    of    Dibdin.       Gay    wrote    in    his 

Trivia,  1 7 1 5  :  — 

"The  patten  now  supports  each  frugal  dame 
That  from  the  blue-eyed  Patty  takes  the  name." 

In  reality,  patten  is  derived  from  the  French  word 
patin,  which  has  a  varied  meaning  of  the  sole  of  a 
shoe  or  a  skate. 

Pattens  were  noisy,  awkward  wear.     A  writer  of 
the  day  of  their  universality  wrote,  "Those  ugly, 


37o 


Two  Centuries  of  Costu 


me 


noisy,  ferruginous,  ancle-twisting,  foot-cutting,  clink- 
ing things  called  women's  pattens."  Notices  were 
set  in  church  porches  enjoining  the  removal  of 
women's  pattens,  which,  of  course,  should  never 
have  been  worn  into  church  during  service-time. 
It  may  have  disappeared  to- 
day, but  four  years  ago,  on  the 
door  of  Walpole  St.  Peters, 
near  Wisbeck,  England,  hung 
^^^  a    board    which    read,    "  Peo- 

sj0  pie  who  enter  this  church  are 

requested  to  take  off  their  pat- 
tens."   A  friend  in  Northamp- 
tonshire,   England,  writes   me 
that  pattens  are  still   seen   on 
muddy  days  in  remote  English  villages  in  that  shire. 
Men  wore  pattens  in  early  days.     And  men  did 
and  do  wear  clogs  in  English  mill-towns. 

There  were  also  horse  pattens  or  horse  clogs 
which  horses  wore  through  deep,  muddy  roads;  I 
have  an  interesting  photograph  of  a  pair  found  in 
Northampton. 


Children's  Clogs.     1730. 


CHAPTER    XIV 


BATTS    AND    BROAGS,    BOOTS    AND    SHOES 

"  By  my  Faith  !  Master  Inkpen,  thou  hast  put  thy  foot  in  it  ! 
Tis  a  pretty  subject  and  a  strange  one,  and  a  vast  one,  but 
we'll  leave  it  never  a  sole  to  stand  on.  The  proverb  hath 
'  There' 's  naught  like  leather,'  but  my  Lady  ansiuers  '  Save 
silk.'  " 

—  Old  Play. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

BATTS  AND  BROAGS,  BOOTS  AND  SHOES 

NE  of  the  first  sumptuary  laws  in  New 
England  declared  that  men  of  mean 
estate  should  not  walk  abroad  in  im- 
moderate great  boots.  It  was  a  natural 
prohibition  where  all  extravagance  in 
dress  was  reprehended  and  restrained.  The  "  great 
boots "  which  had  been  so  vast  in  the  reign  of 
James  I  seemed  to  be  spreading  still  wider  in  the 
reign  of  Charles.  I  have  an  old  "Discourse"  on 
leather  dated  1629,  which  states  fully  the  condi- 
tion of  things.  Its  various  headings  read,  "  The 
general  Use  of  Leather ; "  "  The  general  Abuse 
thereof; "  "  The  good  which  may  arise  from  the 
Reformation  ;  "  "  The  several  Statutes  made  in  that 
behalf  by  our  ancient  Kings  ;  "  and  lastly  a  "  Petition 
to  the  High  Court  of  Parliament."  It  is  all  most 
informing;  for  instance,  in  the  trades  that  might 
want  work  were  it  not  for  leather  are  named  not 
only  "shoemakers,  cordwainers,  curriers,  etc.,"  but 
many  now  obsolete.     The  list  reads  :  — 

"  Book  binders.  Budget  makers. 

Saddlers.  Trunk  makers. 

Upholsterers.  Belt  makers. 

373 


374  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

c  !ase  makei  s.  Box  makers. 

Wool-card  makers.  Cabinet  makers. 

Shuttle  makers.  Bottle  and  Jack  makers. 

Hawks-hood  makers  Gridlcrs. 

Scabbard-makers.  Glovers." 

Unwillingly  the  author  added  "  those  upstart  trades 
—  Coach  Makers,  and  Harness  Makers  for  Coach 
Horses."  It  was  really  feared,  by  this  sensible 
gentleman-writer  —  and  many  others —  that  if  many 
carriages  and  coaches  were  used,  shoemakers  would 
suffer  because  so  few  shoes  would  be  worn  out. 

From  the  statutes  which  are  rehearsed  we  learn  that 
the  footwear  of  the  day  was  "  boots,  shoes,  buskins, 
startups,  slippers,  or  pantofles."      Stubbes  said:  — 

"  They  have  korked  shooes  puisnets  pantoffles,  some  of 
black  velvet,  some  of  white  some  of  green,  some  of  yel- 
low, some  of  Spanish  leather,  some  of  English  leather 
stitched  with  Silke  and  embroidered  with  Gold  &  Silver  all 
over  the  foot." 

A  very  interesting  book  has  been  published  by 
the  British  Cordwainers'  Guild,  giving  a  succession 
of  fine  illustrations  of  the  footwear  of  different 
times  and  nations.  Among  them  are  some  hand- 
some English  slippers,  shoes,  jack-boots,  etc.  We 
have  also  in  our  museums,  historical  collections,  and 
private  families  many  fine  examples  ;  but  the  diffi- 
culty is  in  the  assigning  of  correct  dates.  Family 
tradition  is  absolutely  wide  of  the  truth  —  its  fabu- 
lous dates  are  often  a  century  away  from  the  proper 
year. 


Batts  and   Broags,   Boots  and  Shoes        375 

Buskins  to  the  knee  were  worn  even  by  royalty; 
Queen  Elizabeth's  still  exist.  Buskins  were  in  wear 
when  the  colonies  were  settled.  Richard  Sawyer,  of 
Windsor,  Connecticut,  had  cloth  buskins  in  1648; 
and  a  hundred    years  later  runaway  servants  wore 


Wedding  Slippers  and  Brocade.      1712. 


them.  One  redemptioner  is  described  as  running 
off  in  "sliders  and  buskins."  American  buskins 
were  a  foot-covering  consisting  of  a  strong  leather 
sole  with  cloth  uppers  and  leggins  to  the  knees, 
which  were  fastened  with  lacings.  Startups  were 
similar,  but  heavier.  In  Thynne's  Debate  be- 
tween Pride  and  Lowliness  ^  the  dress  of  a  coun- 
tryman is  described.      It  runs  thus:  — 


376  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

"  A  payre  of  startups  had  he  on  his  feetc 

That  lased  were  up  to  the  small  of  the  legge. 
Homelie  they  are,  and  easier  than  meete  ; 

And  in  their  soles  hill  many  a  wooden  pegge." 

Thomas  Johnson  of  Wethersfield,  Connecticut, 
died  in    1S40.      He  owned  "  1    Perre  of  Startups." 

Slippers  were  worn  even  in  the  fifteenth  century. 
In  the  Paston  Letters,  in  a  letter  dated  February 
23,  1479,  is  this  sentence,  "  In  the  whych  lettre 
was  VIII  d  with  the  whych  I  shulde  bye  a  peyr  of 
slvppers."  Even  for  those  days  eightpence  must 
have  been  a  small  price  for  slippers.  In  1686, 
Judge  Samuel  Sewall  wrote  to  a  member  of  the 
Hall  family  thanking  him  for  "The  Kind  Loving 
Token  —  the  East  Indian  Slippers  for  my  wife." 
Other  colonial  letters  refer  to  Oriental  slippers ; 
and  I  am  sure  that  Turkish  slippers  are  worn  by 
Lady  Temple  in  her  childish  portrait,  painted  in 
company  with  her  brother.  Slip-shoes  were  evi- 
dently slippers  —  the  word  is  used  by  Sewall;  and 
slap-shoes  are  named  by  Randle  Holme.  Pantofles 
were  also  slippers,  being  apparently  rather  handsomer 
footwear  than  ordinary  slippers  or  slip-shoes.  They 
are  in  general  specified  as  embroidered.  Evelyn 
tells  of  the  fine  pantofles  of  the  Pope  embroidered 
with  jewels  on  the  instep. 

So  great  was  the  use  and  abuse  of  leather  that  a 
petition  was  made  to  Parliament  in  1629  to  attempt 
to  restrict  the  making  of  great  boots.  One  sentence 
runs : — 

"The  wearing  of  Boots  is  not  the  Abuse;  but  the 
generality  of  wearing  and  the  manner  of  cutting  Boots  out 


Batts  and   Broags,   Boots  and  Shoes        377 

with  huge  slovenly  unmannerly  immoderate  tops.  What  over 
lavish  spending  is  there  in  Boots  and  Shoes.  To  either  of 
which  is  now  added  a  French  proud  Superfluity  of  Leather. 
"  For  the  general  Walking  in  Boots  it  is  a  Pride  taken 
up  by  the  Courtier  and  is  descended  to  the  Clown.  The 
Merchant  and   Mechanic   walk    in    Boots.      Manv  of   our 


Jack-boots.     Owned  by  Lord  Fairfax  of  Virginia. 

Clergy  either  in  neat  Boots  or  Shoes  and  Galloshoes. 
University  Scholars  maintain  the  Fashion  likewise.  Some 
Citizens  out  of  a  Scorn  not  to  be  Gentile  go  every  day 
booted.  Attorneys,  Lawyers,  Clerks,  Serving  Men,  All 
Sorts  of  Men  delight  in  this  Wasteful  Wantonness. 

Wasteful  I  may  well  call  it.      One  pair  of  boots  eats  up 
the  leather  of  six  reasonable  pair  of  men's  shoes." 


3J$  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

Monstrous  boots  seem  to  have  been  the  one  fri- 
volity in  dress  which  the  Puritans  could  not  give  up. 
In  the  reign  of  Charles  I  boots  were  superb.  The 
tops  were  flaring,  lined  within  with  lace  or  em- 
broidered or  fringed;  thus  when  turned  down  they 
were  richly  ornamental.  Fringes  of  leather,  silk,  or 
cloth  edged  some  boot-tops  on  the  outside ;  the 
leather  itself  was  carved  and  gilded.  The  soldiers 
and  officers  of  Cromwell's  army  sometimes  gave  up 
laces  and  fringes,  but  not  the  boot-tops.  The  Earl 
of  Essex,  his  general,  had  cloth  fringes  on  his  boots. 
(See  his  portrait  facing  page  26  ;  also  the  portrait 
of  Lord  Fairfax,  facing  page  38.)  In  the  court  of 
Charles  II  and  Louis  XIV  of  France  the  boot-tops 
spread  to  absurd  inconvenience.  The  toes  of  these 
boots  were  very  square,  as  were  the  toes  of  men's 
and  women's  shoes.  Children's  shoes  were  of  simi- 
lar form.  The  singular  shoes  worn  by  John  Quincy 
and  Robert  Gibbes  are  precisely  right-angled.  It 
was  a  sneer  at  the  Puritans  that  they  wore  pointed 
toes.  The  shoe-ties,  roses,  and  buckles  varied  ;  but 
the  square  toes  lingered,  though  they  were  singularly 
inelegant.  On  the  feet  of  George  I  (see  portrait  fac- 
ing page  184)  the  square-toed  shoes  are  ugly  indeed. 

James  I  scornfully  repelled  shoe-roses  when 
brought  to  him  for  his  wear ;  asking  if  they  wished 
to  "make  a  ruffle-footed  dove"  of  him.  But  soon 
he  wore  the  largest  rosettes  in  court.  Peacham  tells 
that  some  cost  as  much  as  ^3°  a  pair,  being  then,  of 
course,  of  rare  lace. 

Friar  Bacon's  Brazen  Head  Prophecie,  set  into  a 
"  Plaie  "  or  Rhyme,  has  these  verses  (1604) :  — 


Batts  and  Broags,   Boots  and  Shoes       379 

"  Then  Handkerchers  were  wrought 
With  Names  and  true  Love  Knots  ; 

And  not  a  wench  was  taught 
A  false  Stitch  in  her  spots  ; 

When  Roses  in  the  Gardaines  grew 

And  not  in  Ribons  on  a  Shoe. 

"  Nozv  Sempsters  few  are  taught 

The  true  Stitch  in  their  Spots  ; 
And  Names  are  sildome  wrought 

Within  the  true  love  knots  ; 
And  Ribon  Roses  takes  such  Place 
That  Garden  Roses  want  their  Grace." 

Shoes  of  buff  leather,  slashed,  were  the  very  height 
of  the  fashion  in  the  first  years  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  They  can  be  seen  on  the  feet  of  Will 
Sommers  in  his  portrait.  Through  the  slashes 
showed  bright  the  scarlet  or  green  stockings  of  cloth 
or  yarn.  Bright-colored  shoe-strings  gave  additional 
gaudiness.  Green  shoe-strings,  spangled,  gilded 
shoe-strings,  shoes  of  "  dry-neat-leather  tied  with 
red  ribbons,"  "  russet  boots,"  "  white  silken  shoe 
strings," — all   were  worn. 

Red  heels  appear  about  17 10.  In  Hogarth's 
original  paintings  they  are  seen.  Women  wore  them 
extensively  in  America. 

The  jack-boots  of  Stuart  days  seem  absolutely  im- 
perishable. They  are  of  black,  jacked  leather  like 
the  leather  bottles  and  black-jacks  from  which  Eng- 
lishmen drank  their  ale.  So  closely  are  they  alike 
that  I  do  not  wonder  a  French  traveller  wrote  home 
that  Englishmen  drank  from  their  boots.  These 
jack-boots   were    as    solid    and    unpliable    as    iron, 


380 


IWo  Centuries  of  Costume 


Shoe  and  Knee  Buckles. 


square-toed  and  clumsy  of  shape.  A  pair  in  perfect 
preservation  which  belonged  to  Lord  Fairfax  in  Vir- 
ginia is  portrayed  on  page  377.  Had  all  colonial 
gentlemen  worn  jack-boots,  the  bootmakers  and 
shoemakers  would  have  been  ruined,  for  a 
would  last  a  lifetime. 

In  1767  we  find  William  Cabell  of  Virginia 
ing  these  prices  for  his  finery  :  — 


pair 


pay- 


1  Pair  single  channelled  boots  with  straps 

1  Pair  Strong  Buckskin  Breeches 

2  Pairs  Fashionable  Chain  Silver  Spurs 
I  Pair  Silver  Buttons 


s.    d. 

2 

10 
10 

6 


Batts  and  Broags,  Boots  and  Shoes       381 

£  s.   J. 

1   fine  Magazine  Blue  Cloth  Housing  laced     .  12 

1   Strong  Double  Bridle 46 

6  Pair  Men's  fine  Silk  Hose 4  4 

Buttons  &  trimmings  for  a  coat 5  2 

New  England  dandies  wore,  as  did  Monsieur 
A-la-mode :  — 

"  A  pair  of  smart  pumps  made  up  of  grain' d  leather, 
So  thin  he  can't  venture  to  tread  on  a  feather." 

Buckles  were  made  of  pinchbeck,  an  alloy  of  four 
parts  of  copper  and  one  part  of  zinc,  invented  by 
Christopher  Pinchbeck,  a  London  watchmaker  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  Buckles  were  also  "plaited" 
and  double  "plaited"  with  gold  and  silver  (which 
was  the  general  spelling  of  plated).  Plated  buckles 
were  cast  in  pinchbeck,  with  a  pattern  on  the  sur- 
face. A  silver  coating  was  laid  over  this.  These 
buckles  were  set  with  marcasite,  garnet,  and  paste 
jewels  ;  sometimes  they  were  of  gold  with  real  dia- 
monds. But  much  imitation  jewellery  was  worn  by 
all  people  even  of  great  wealth.  Perhaps  imitation 
is  an  incorrect  word.  The  old  paste  jewels  made 
no  assertion  of  being  diamonds.  Steel  cut  in  facets 
and  combined  with  gold,  made  beautiful  buckles. 
A  number  of  rich  shoe  and  garter  buckles,  owned 
in  Salem,  are  shown  on  page  380. 

These  old  buckles  were  handsome,  costly,  digni- 
fied ;  they  were  becoming ;  they  were  elegant. 
Nevertheless,  the  fashionable  world  tired  of  its  ex- 
pensive and  appropriate  buckles  ;  they  suddenly  were 
deemed  inconveniently  large,  and  plain  shoe-strings 


382  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

took  their  place.  This  caused  great  commotion 
and  ruin  among  the  buckle-makers,  who,  with  the 
fatuity  of  other  tradespeople  —  the  wig-makers,  the 
hair-powder  makers  —  in  like  calamitous  changes  of 
fashion,  petitioned  the  Prince  of  Wales,  in  1 791,  to 
do  something  to  revive  their  vanishing  trade.  But 
it  was  like  placing  King  Canute  against  the  advanc- 
ing waves  of  the  sea. 

When    the    Revolutionists   in    France    set    about 
altering    and    simplifying    costume,   they  did    away 


Wedding  Slippers. 

with  shoe-buckles,  and  fastened  their  shoes  with 
plain  strings.  Minister  Roland,  one  day  in  1793, 
was  about  to  present  himself  to  Louis  XVI  while 
he  was  wearing  shoes  with  strings.  The  old  Mas- 
ter of  Ceremonies,  scandalized  at  having  to  intro- 
duce a  person  in  such  a  state  of  undress,  looked 
despairingly  at  Dumouriez,  who  was  present.  Du- 
mouriez  replied  with  an  equally  hopeless  gesture, 
and  the  words,  "  Helas !  oui,  monsieur,  tout  est 
perdu." 


Batts  and  Broags,   Boots  and  Shoes       383 

President  Jefferson,  with  his  hateful  French  no- 
tions, made  himself  especially  obnoxious  to  con- 
servative American  folk  by  giving  up  shoe-buckles. 
I  read  in  the  New  York  Evening  Post  that  when  he 
received  the  noisy  bawling  band  of  admirers  who 
brought  into  the  White  House  the  Mammoth 
Cheese  (one  of  the  most  vulgar  exhibitions  ever 
seen  in  this  country),  he  was  "  dressed  in  his  suit 
of  customary  black,  with  shoes  that  laced  tight 
round  the  ankle  and  closed  with  a  neat  leathern 
string." 

When  shoe-strings  were  established  and  trousers 
were  becoming  popular,  there  seemed  to  be  a  time 
of  indecision  as  to  the  dress  of  the  legs  below  the 
short  pantaloons  and  above  the  stringed  shoes. 
That  point  of  indefiniteness  was  filled  promptly 
with  top-boots.  First,  black  tops  appeared ;  then 
came  tops  of  fancy  leather,  of  which  yellow  was  the 
favorite.  Gilt  tassels  swung  pleasingly  from  the 
colored  tops.  Silken  tassels  —  home  made  —  were 
worn.  I  have  a  letter  from  a  young  American 
macaroni  to  his  sweetheart  in  which  he  thanks  her 
for  her  "heart-filling  boot-tossels  "  —  which  seems 
to  me  a  very  cleverly  flattering  adjective.  He 
adds :  "  Did  those  rosy  fingers  twist  the  silken 
strands,  and  knot  them  with  thought  of  the  wearer? 
I  wish  you  was  loveing  enough  to  tye  some  threads 
of  your  golden  hair  into  the  tossells,  but  I  swear  I 
cannot  find  never  a  one."  The  conjunction  of  two 
negatives  in  this  manner  was  common  usage  a  hun- 
dred years  ago;  while  "you  was"  may  be  found  in 
the  writings  of  our  greatest  authors  of  that  date. 


384  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

In  one  attribute,  women's  footwear  never  varied 
in  the  two  centuries  of  this  book's  recording.  It 
was  always  thin-soled  and  of  light  material ;  never 
adequate  for  much  "  walking  abroad  "  or  for  any 
wet  weather.  In  fact,  women  have  never  worn 
heavy  walking-boots  until  our  own  day.  Whether 
high-heeled  or  no-heeled  they  were  always  thin. 

The  curious  "  needle-pointed  "  slippers  which  are 
pictured  on  page  375  were  the  bridal  slippers  at  the 
wedding  of  Cornelia  de  Peyster,  who  married  Oliver 
Teller  in  17 12.  Several  articles  of  her  dress  still 
exist ;  and  the  background  of  the  slippers  is  a 
breadth  of  the  superb  yellow  and  silver  brocade 
wedding  gown  worn  at  the  same  time. 

When  we  have  the  tiny  pages  of  the  few  news- 
papers to  turn  to,  we  learn  a  little  of  women's  shoes. 
There  were  advertisements  in  1740  of  "mourn- 
ing shoes,"  "fine  silk  shoes,"  "flowered  russet 
shoes,"  "white  callimanco  shoes,"  "black  shammy 
shoes,"  "girls'  flowered  russet  shoes,"  "shoes  of 
black  velvet,  white  damask,  red  morocco,  and  red 
everlasting."  "  Damask  worsted  shoes  in  red,  blue, 
green,  pink  color  and  white,"  in  175 1.  There 
were  satinet  patterns  for  ladies'  shoes  embroidered 
with  flowers  in  the  vamp.  The  heels  were  "  high, 
cross-cut,  common,  court,  and  wurtemburgh."  Some 
shoes  were  white  with  russet  bands.  "  French  fall  " 
shoes  were  worn  both  by  women  and  men  for  many 
years. 

On  page  382  is  a  pair  of  beautiful  brocade  wed- 
ding shoes.  The  heels  are  not  high.  Another  pair 
was  made  of  the  silken  stuff  of  the  beautiful  sacque 


^t' 


•'.-:■;., 


f 


Mrs.  Abigail  Bromfield  Rogers. 


Batts  and  Broags,  Boots  and  Shoes       385 

worn  by  Mrs.  Carroll.  These  have  high  heels 
running  down  to  a  very  small  heel-base.  In  the 
works  of  Hogarth  we  may  find  many  examples  of 
women's  shoes.  In  all  the  old  shoes  I  have  seen, 
made  about  the  time  of  the  American  Revolution, 
the  maker's  name  is  within  and  this  legend,  "  Rips 


FW 

yppp.F     ii 

R*£— -  S\JB 

WL                    s  mm 

^ 

WSwMn^t»fTv^ 

.    ^jMjjjfl 

^Eg^J^^jji^^^ 

^^k  *■  -  ^^BMHfl 

Mrs.  Carroll's  Slippers. 

mended  free."      Many  heels  were  much  higher  and 
smaller  than  any  given  in  this  book. 

It  is  astonishing  to  read  the  advocacy  and  eulogy 
given  by  sensible  gentlemen  to  these  extreme  heels. 
Watson,  the  writer  of  the  Annals  of  Philadelphia, 
extolled  their  virtues  —  that  they  threw  the  weight 
of  the  wearer  on  the  ball  of  the  foot  and  spread  it 

VOL.  I  —  2  C 


386  Two   Centuries   of  Costume 

out  for  a  good  support.  He  deplores  the  flat  feet 
of  1830. 

In  1790  heels  disappeared;  sandal-shapes  were 
the  mode.  The  quarters  were  made  low,  and  in- 
stead of  a  buckle  was  a  tiny  bow  or  a  pleated  ribbon 
edging.  In  1791  "the  exact  size"  of  the  shoe  of 
the  Duchess  of  York  was  published  —  a  fashionable 
fad  which  our  modern  sensation  hunters  have  not 
bethought  themselves  of.  It  was  5J  inches  in 
length;  the  breadth  of  sole,  ij  inches.  It  was  a 
colored  print,  and  shows  that  the  lady's  shoe  was 
of  green  silk  spotted  with  gold  stars,  and  bound 
with  scarlet  silk.  The  sole  is  thicker  at  the  back, 
forming  a  slight  uplift  which  was  not  strictly  a  heel. 
Of  course,  this  was  a  tiny  foot,  but  we  do  not  know 
the  height  of  the  duchess. 

I  have  seen  the  remains  of  a  charming  pair  of 
court  shoes  worn  in  France  by  a  pretty  Boston  girl. 
These  had  been  embroidered  with  paste  jewels, 
"diamonds";  while  to  my  surprise  the  back  seam 
of  both  shoes  was  outlined  with  paste  emeralds.  I 
find  that  this  was  the  mode  of  the  court  of  Marie 
Antoinette.  The  queen  and  her  ladies  wore  these 
in  real  jewels,  and  in  affectation  wore  no  jewels  else- 
where. 

In  Mrs.  Gaskell's  My  Lady  Ludlow  we  are  told 
that  my  lady  would  not  sanction  the  mode  of  the 
beginning  of  the  century  which  "made  all  the  fine 
ladies  take  to  making  shoes."  Mrs.  Blundell,  in 
one  of  her  novels,  sets  her  heroine  (about  1805)  at 
shoe-making.  The  shoes  of  that  day  were  very  thin 
of  material,  very  simple  of  shape,  were  heelless,  and 


Batts  and  Broags,  Boots  and  Shoes       387 

in  many  cases  closely  approached  a  sandal.  A  pair 
worn  by  my  great-aunt  at  that  date  is  shown  on  this 
page.  American  women  certainly  had  tiny  feet. 
This  aunt  was  above  the  average  height,  but  her 
shoes  are  no  larger  than  the  number  known  to-day 
as  "Ones"  —  a  size  about  large  enough  for  a  girl 
ten  years  old. 

It  was   not  long  after  English  girls  were  making 
shoes  that  Yankee   girls  were  shaping  and  binding 


White  Kid  Slippers.     1815. 

them  in  New  England.  I  have  seen  several  old 
letters  which  gave  rules  for  shaping  and  directions 
for  sewing  party-shoes  of  thin  light  kid  and  silk. 
It  is  not  probable  that  any  heavy  materials  were  ever 
made  up  by  women  at  home.  Sandals  also  were 
worn,  and  made  by  girls  for  their  own  wear  from 
bits  of  morocco  and  kid. 

In  the  early  years  of  the  century  the  thin,  silk  hose 
and  low  slippers  of  the  French  fashions  proved  almost 
unendurable  in  our  northern  winters.  One  wearer 
of  the  time  writes,  "  Many  a  time  have  I  walked 
Broadway  when  the  pavement  sent  almost  a  death 
chill  to  my  heart."  The  Indians  then  furnished  an 
article  of  dress  which  must  have  been  grateful  indeed, 


388  Two  Centuries  of  Costume 

pretty   moccasins  edged  with  fur,  to  l>c  worn  over 
the  thin  slippers. 

An  old  lady  recalled  with  precision  that  the  first 
boots  for  women's  wear  came  in  fashion  in  1828; 
they  were  laced  at  the  side.  Garters  and  boots  both 
had  fringes  at  the  top. 


^ 


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